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INFANT SALVATION. 
THE BAPTISMAL FONT." 
THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



BY 



THE REV. JOHN CUMMING, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF LECTURES ON THE APOCALYPSE, MIRACLES, PARABLES, DANIEL, ETC. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

LINDSAY AND BLAKISTOK 

1 8 5 5. 



.G^ 



TO 

LADY VERNEY, OF CLAYDON, 

BY WHOM THE SORROWS AND THE CONSOLATIONS 

UNFOLDED IN THIS LITTLE WORK 

HAVE BEEN DEEPLY FELT, AND PRACTICALLY EXEMPLIFIED, 

THIS HUMBLE ATTEMPT 

AT REMOVING SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES THAT TROUBLE 

THE SPIRITS OF BEREAVED PARENTS, 

IS DEDICATED, 

WITH SENTIMENTS OF UNFEIGNED RESPECT AND ESTEEM, 
BY THE AUTHOR. 



S 



PREFACE. 



The author wrote this little work originally for 
himself. Its thoughts interested and instructed 
his own mind, and he indulged the hope they 
would not fail to interest the minds of others also. 

It is his belief that they have done so ; the best 
evidence is, perhaps, the rapid sale of a very large 
impression, combined with many requests to re- 
publish it. He has doubled its size, strengthened 
its positions, and appended such practical spiritual 
truths as he thinks will leave a favourable im- 
pression on the hearts of those who weep over the 
remembrance of their departed infants. "Where 
they are he would teach them to know, and the 
way also, and, if possible, to hear their voices from 
heaven saying, " Come up hither : we are happy. 
Come in heart, in faith, in hope now, and in due 
time in person also." 



(xi) 



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INFANT SALVATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

If it be a fact, as the most accurate statistics 
prove, that at least a third, or not improbably a 
half, of the human race die in the years of infancy, 
it must be a question of some interest to all, and 
of the deepest anxiety to many — what conclusions 
we may scripturally cherish respecting their eternal 
state. Reckless and painful assertions have been 
hazarded by some, doubts have been freely ex- 
pressed by others, and an anxious desire for a clear 
and satisfying decision has been felt by all. As 
our infants die, w r e feel our anxieties about their 
hereafter multiply. Tender hearts hope the best ; 
and the aching void created in maternal bosoms is 
eased by the expectation, of which affection rather 
than evidence is the source, that one day the bud 
that was nipped on earth shall be seen in heaven 
in all the bloom of immortality and glory. All 
we would attempt in this little work, is to show 
that these hopes of the heart are sustained by the 
words of inspiration beyond all cavil or dispute. 
We assert, therefore, there are solid grounds for 

2 (13) 



14 INFANT SALVATION. 

bright hopes of the future destiny of infants : we 
are not left, we think, to conjecture; the grave 
that shrouds them from our sight does not displace 
them from our surest anticipations. Death severs 
the parent and the infant only for a season. We 
are sure that this is not the fond wish of a bereaved 
spirit, but the clear assertion of the Spirit of God. 
It is worthy of remark, that infants are referred 
to in Scripture as peculiarly the protegees of 
the love of Jesus. The blessed gospel opens 
an asylum in its bosom to infants, It alone 
is the nursing-mother of the young. Atheism 
would treat them with the same freezing apathy 
wherewith it frowns on the whole family of 
man. Deism, or infidelity, whether it speaks 
through the socialist or mere phrenologist, views 
them as specimens simply of physical organiza- 
tion, and fears to teach a holy lesson, lest there 
should be communicated what either regards as an 
unjust and injurious bias. Ancient nations did not 
hesitate to ofler their little ones either as propitia- 
tions for the sins of their parents, or as sacrifices 
to Moloch. Even the Romans, the domini rerum^ 
in whose language strangers were known by the 
name of Barbarians only, were generally accus- 
tomed "to expose" their infants. The Chinese 
are notorious infanticides. Hindooism, dead to 
maternal instinct, forgets the infant she brings 
forth, and leaves it to perish in the waters, or on 
the banks of the Ganges. We require no evidence 
more significant of the cruelty of superstition than 



INFANT SALVATION. 15 

the accounts furnished by Gutzlaff and other mis- 
sionaries of the treatment experienced by infants, 
especially female infants, in China. Numbers are 
to be seen daily perishing of hunger in the streets 
of Pekin ; and when the missionary of the cross 
remonstrated with those who had power to inter- 
pose, the only reply he received was, "It is only a 
female. " Christianity alone looks with sympathy 
on infants, loves them more than angels, provides 
for their future state, and plants in the sorrowing 
hearts of those who have lost them bright hopes of 
restored union and communion in glory. Christi- 
anity takes the infant close to her mother-bosom, 
spreads over it the warm wing of love, sprinkles on 
its bright brow waters from that river whose streams 
make glad the city of our God, and gives utterance 
to the deep sympathies of her heart in these words, 
— " Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven.' ' Babes are not too insignificant in her 
thoughts. - Her Incarnate One controls the exalted 
hierarch beside the throne, and also stoops to teach 
and bless an orphan child. Never did He w T ho spake 
as man never spoke breathe a more beautiful or 
touching thought, or bequeath to mourning mo- 
thers bereaved of their infants a more precious 
legacy, than when he rebuked the stern frowns 
w T hich his disciples cast on the mothers that crowded 
round him with their babes, and took up the un- 
conscious infants in his arms, and blessed them, 
and said, " Suffer little children to come unto me, 



16 INFANT SALVATION. 

and forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." "Whosoever may undervalue these germs 
of immortality — these folded buds of promise — 
these tenants of earth in training for heaven — the 
Son of God does not. He spreads over them 
the shield of his power, and covers them with the 
feathers of his wing. He saw immortality beam 
from their countenances — in their bosoms his ear 
heard the beatings of a life that can never die — 
and capacities which all the treasures of time and 
earth cannot fill disclosed themselves to the eye of 
Him to whom the most secret structure of mind 
and body is thoroughly unveiled. It is relation to 
eternity that makes the feeblest strong, and the 
smallest great. In that scene the Son of God let 
forth bright beams of his essential glory ; not the 
glory w T hich the crowd admires, it is true, but that 
glory which, as its Hebrew synonyme denotes, is 
"weight when weighed" in those scales wherein 
human glory is as dust in the balances. True great- 
ness is not necessarily associated with armed battal- 
ions, and floating banners, and rolling drums, and 
laurels and garments rolled in blood, and victories. 
These in the estimate of higher spirits are childish 
things in one respect, and demon things in another 
respect. There is little real glory about war. It is, 
after all, a little game, even when greatest admired 
by little men. Real glory is spiritual, not material. 
Its centre is the soul, and its circumference the 
universe. Spiritual conflict crowned with spiritual 
triumphs — souls bursting the chains of sin — hearts 



INFANT SALVATION. 17 

dissolving in sympathies, in sacrifices, and in deeds 
of lofty disinterestedness — these are the elements 
of that glory which is not little, and does not die. 
In the Saviour's embracing infants, the great mass 
of mankind can see none of the elements of a sub- 
lime thing. Physical and earthly glory alone can 
they applaud, they can see tinsel only ; yet it 
was a sublime spectacle. The Son of God, in this 
act, and in expressing the sentiment in which it 
was set, was really radiant with the greatest glory, 
just because he was clothed with the greatest hu- 
mility : the humble alone unbosoms the lofty, and 
greatness seems greatest when it stoops. In em- 
bracing these babes, God shone forth in richer ma- 
jesty than when He stood on the circle of the hea- 
vens and said, " Let there be light : and there was 
light." God was glorious in the garments of 
humanity, for as he descended in sufiering, humilia- 
tion, and sorrow, he really rose in true majesty, and 
shed upon the paths he moved in an intenser lustre. 
God's acts of condescension are God's acts of great- 
ness. Hence it is that the microscope gives us a 
clearer view of his power, and wisdom, and benefi- 
cence, than even the telescope. He is thereby seen 
to be more wonderful in giving its pulsations to an 
insect's heart, and in weaving the texture of the 
ephemera's wing, than in fixing stars in their 
spheres, or wheeling planets in their orbits. The 
gospel is the microscope and telescope combined, 
and both consecrated to loftier fields of vision. It 
records the discoveries of both. Our blessed Lord 
o * 



18 INFANT SALVATION. 

then was really more glorified when he gathered the 
poor, barefooted, and ragged infants around him in 
the streets of Jerusalem, and blessed them, than 
when the cherubim gathered round Him on the 
throne of his glory, "high and lifted up," saying, 
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts." 
Humility, we have said, is greatness. May we feel 
it to be so ! Let us pray to have a portion of the 
same spirit, that w T e may be able to rise above the 
"vain show" of things, and pierce and calculate 
their substance. Let us look on all that attracts 
the vulgar eye as common and poor; but that soul 
which can commune with God — which can collect 
in its capacious bosom the moral splendours of hea- 
ven — which can find repose nowhere but beside the 
throne of God — nutriment nowhere but in the trust, 
and love, and presence of Deity — let us reverence. 
We may condemn it, we may pity it ; but we dare 
not scorn it. Its very wreck has still sounding in 
its depths the voice of God, and its remotest and 
most guilty aberration from its only centre does 
not make it part with every trace of its aboriginal 
grandeur. Be it in an infant's, or in a monarch's 
bosom, it is too great to be overlooked — -too awful 
to be despised. 



INFANT SALVATION. 19 



CHAPTER II. 

It is a fact, as we have already observed, that 
nearly half the human race die in the period of 
infancy and childhood : — whatever may be the 
causes or the explanation, the fact is beyond dis- 
pute. To parents, whose years are counted by 
these mournful landmarks — blossoms no sooner 
blown than blasted — tears shed over the infant's 
bier, that quenched the joys which lighted up the 
hour of its birth — it must, we repeat, be a very 
frequent as well as anxious inquiry, What is the 
fiual destiny of so large a proportion of the human 
family ? Can we satisfy it ? Each infant visitant 
seems to have descended from the better land, to 
have breathed our freezing atmosphere a few 
weeks, and to have opened its eyes on our dis- 
mantled world, and immediately to have left us, 
as if disappointed. Whither did it flee ? Where 
is it now ? in weal or woe ? Does it cease to be, or 
only to suffer? Is it well for eternity with the in- 
fant throng, taken from successive millions of 
weeping mothers — from Rachels without number, 
sorrowing because they are not ? Was it mercy or 
vengeance that wafted them away ? Was it God 
that set the seal of special favour on their infant 
souls, and repented, and recalled them to more 



20 INFANT SALVATION. 

genial climes ? or was it the grim King of Terrors 
who breathed upon them in his wrath, and num- 
bered them with his victims? Or are they for- 
gotten and forsaken things? Is this possible? 
Are sparrows counted and infants overlooked? 
Are ravens heard when they cry for food, and 
innocents only forgotten ? 

Various theories, or rather imaginations, have 
been propagated on this subject. Some have ven- 
tured to affirm, that infants dying are annihilated. 
This is alike unscriptural and unphilosophical. 
Neither on the page of revelation nor on the page 
of nature is any such word inscribed. Nothing 
even in the material world is annihilated. Matter 
changes its form and structure ; but it neither is, 
nor, as far as our experience goes, can be annihi- 
lated. Such a doom revolts the best instincts of 
our nature, contradicts the clearest intimations of 
Holy Scripture, and would be utterly inexplicable 
on any just theory of the existence of a wise and 
benevolent God. "We do not stop to discuss it. 
We treat it with unmingled contempt. But if it 
be true, as revelation fully reveals, and as we have 
intimated before, that in the feeblest frame there 
resides a soul indestructible as the God that gave 
it, then the very idea of extinction is as absurd as 
it is contemptible. The mighty mind of Newton, 
that recorded the soundings of the firmament, and 
grasped celestial systems, and grouped the stars, 
and unveiled the mysterious ties that bind them 
into universal harmony, was once circumscribed by 



INFANT SALVATION. 21 

an infant's frame. The soul of Milton, the gran- 
deur of whose genius was equalled only by the 
awful conceptions of which it was prolific, or the 
sublime and terrible theme which he handled, was 
once a baby's soul, composed to rest by a mother's 
lullaby, and amused with toys. Was that mighty 
spirit that disclosed the primal springs of the mo- 
tion and harmony of creation, and approached 
nearest of men to the very throne of wisdom and 
goodness, capable of destruction in infancy ? "Was 
the mind that trod the burning floors of hell, or 
rose on all but unearthly pinions and mapped the 
realms of unutterable glory, a thing to be crushed 
by accident, and to be extinguished by death ? 
The death of either in infancy would not have 
been the annihilation, but the enfranchisement of 
those master-spirits, with the full knowledge and 
unchecked freedom after which they panted, from 
their prison-houses upon earth. The soul is a frag- 
ment of immortality — half time, half eternity is in 
its nature — its birth indicating its affinity to the 
former, its incapability of death stamping its rela- 
tionship to the latter. It asks of the body room 
only for its expansion — a lodging only for its 
minority. It asks nothing more. 

A second notion is, that the infants of believers 
only are saved, and those of unbelievers lost. We 
do not mean to deny that distinctive promises are 
made to the infants of believers. And these are 
too precious to be undervalued. It is a holy privi- 
lege to be born of Christian parents, as well as a 



22 INFANT SALVATION. 

gracious title to federal blessings ; and many will 
thank God for it in eternity. But there is no evi- 
dence in scripture that eternal death is ever visited 
on the souls of children as the punishment of the 
sins of their parents ; the idea involves injustice. 
"Visiting the sins of the fathers on the children" 
is exhausted in time, and perhaps it relates not so 
much to children, that is, infants, in natural succes- 
sion, as to kings and their subjects. "Fathers" 
and "children" are expressions repeatedly applied 
in scripture to rulers and subjects, and to previous 
and succeeding generations. But if these words 
be construed in their literal sense, they are intended 
to convey a lesson and warning to the parents ; and 
therefore the "visiting" of the children must be in 
this life, that the parents who have neglected their 
duty may thus see and feel it either as a penalty or 
a chastisement. Of this, however, we are absolutely 
certain, that those children only that deliberately 
transfer to themselves the unholy example of their 
parents alone shall be punished, while those who 
deplore and avoid the evil precedent they have 
witnessed shall not be visited. 

Ezek. xviii. 19 : " Ye say, "Why ? cloth not the 
son bear the iniquity of his* father ? When the son 
hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath 
kept all my statutes, and hath done' them, he shall 
surely live. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. 
The son shall not bear the inquity of the father, 
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the 
son ; the righteousness of the righteous shall be 



INFANT SALVATION. 23 

upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall 
be upon him." 

Ezek. xviii. 2, 4 : " What mean ye, that ye use 
this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, 
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the child- 
ren's teeth are set on edge ? As I live, saith the 
Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to 
use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are 
mine ; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of 
the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall 
die.' , 

These passages of Scripture set at rest all disputes 
upon this point. I do not believe that one soul will 
be saved by its parent's virtue, or that one will 
perish eternally by reason of a parent's sins. " The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die." 

A third opinion has obtained some popularity, 
especially in certain quarters, viz., that all baptized 
infants are saved, and all unbaptized infants lost. 
However plausible this may appear, it is not true. 
"We must never magnify even a Christian rite or 
even a sacrament at the expense of precious truth. 
No doubt, as I think, it is the sacred duty of 
every Christian parent to have his child baptized ; 
and few, I presume, unless from inexcusable and 
guilty neglect, or from prejudices of early growth 
and inveterate power, will allow their children to 
grow up unbaptized. But, surely, to visit through- 
out the cycles of endless hell the error or the crime 
of the father on the unoffending offspring, is a re- 
tribution from which nature strongly recoils, and 



24 INFANT SALVATION. 

to which revelation, I am persuaded, gives no 
countenance. If baptism were a new heart in 
every case, and the absence of it the absence of a 
new nature also, then might this position, severe 
and awful as it seems, be held with some degree 
of justice. To have their infants baptized would, 
in such a case, be the supreme and paramount duty 
of parents to their offspring. But baptism is not 
necessarily a new nature.* Neither does nature 
assert it, nor does experience prove it. The very 
reverse is capable of proof. While the Holy Scrip- 
tures enjoin the administration of baptism as a 
solemn seal and sign of the covenant of grace, and 
a channel of unnumbered blessings to them that 
by faith receive it, they at the same time teach us, 
with a reiteration and earnestness not to be mis- 
taken, that it is not necessarily a new nature — that 
" neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncir- 
cumcision, but a new creature," and this change is 
the^ personal work of the Holy Spirit — that Abra- 
ham received the blessedness of pardon and purity, 
which are the constituent elements of the new 
creature, not in circumcision, but in uncircumci- 
sion. These illustrations are fatal to this theory. 
It is too obvious from the whole tone of scripture 
warning, that the great difficulty lies in raising 
man's soul above the visible and material symbols 
to the inward and spiritual truths to which they 
were intended to point. Now if, under a dispen- 

* See " Baptismal Font," in which this is discussed. 



INFANT SALVATION. 25 

sation where the symbol and the substance were 
throughout so intimately wedded that they were 
not to be severed, grace nevertheless in one in- 
stance preceded its appropriate rite, and if that in- 
stance be referred to by the sacred penman not as 
a beacon, but clearly as a precedent for the estab- 
lishment of a principle — surely, under the more 
unfettered and expansive dispensation of the 
gospel, the outward rite may be regarded neither 
as so essential that there is no salvation without it, 
nor so efficacious that in every instance it operates 
a transference from sin to holiness, or from the 
power of Satan to the kingdom of God. The Con- 
fession of Faith in the Church of Scotland has 
these words, "Elect infants dying in infancy are 
regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit 
who worketh when, and where, and how He 
pleaseth." The expression, "elect," is, in my 
judgment, co-extensive with "all dying in in- 
fancy." I believe none but "elect" infants die in 
infancy. The wording is rigid, as was characteristic 
of the divines that drew it up ; but the spirit and 
design were, no doubt, truly Christian. 

I do not enter upon other theories. I proceed 
rather to vindicate and prove what seems to me to 
be the verdict of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures; 

viz., that ALL CHILDREN DYING IN INFANCY, OR BEFORE 
THE YEARS OF RESPONSIBILITY, ARE, WITHOUT ONE EX- 
CEPTION OR LIMITATION AS TO THE CHARACTER OR THE 
CONDUCT OF THE PARENTS, SAVED. 

3 



26 INFANT SALVATION. 



CHAPTER in. 

The announcement of the proposition in the last 
chapter will call up objections. It may be well to 
review some of these objections, and dismiss them 
before we attempt to prove our proposition and 
press it. Our way will thus be clearer, and our 
conclusions less modified or entangled by imagi- 
nary difficulties. 

It has been objected, for instance, that incontro- 
vertible facts prove that children have been and 
are involved in the punishment that has been exe- 
cuted on their parents. At the flood, for instance, 
when the world was destroyed, it is an undoubted 
fact that millions of infants must have perished in 
its waters. In the judgment that fell on Sodom 
and Gomorrah, many infants must have been con- 
sumed in the fires. "Hence," says the objector, 
reasoning from these as analogies, " as we see that 
infants do suffer because of their parents' trans- 
gressions in time, we cannot but consistently infer, 
or at least j t ou cannot disprove, that infants will 
suffer for their parents' transgressions in eternity.' ' 
"We admit the fact, but we dispute the analogy. 
There is no proportion whatever between suffering 
temporally and suffering eternally. These states 
of suffering also differ not only in degree but also 



INFANT SALVATION. 27 

in character ; and because the one takes place for 
one end, it is no fair or legitimate inference that 
the other must take place also for a totally different 
end. Such visitations, however outwardly severe, 
in time may be essential though disguised good- 
ness ; in eternity they could be wrath only. If it 
be true, though I do not wish to anticipate conclu- 
sions, as we have asserted, and shall endeavour to 
prove, that all infants dying in infancy are saved, 
then the destruction of the infants of the antedilu- 
vian world was not wrath, but mercy ; not cruelty, 
but kindness. It w 7 as " light affliction for a mo- 
ment, working out a far more exceeding, even an 
eternal weight of glory ;" for the wave that over- 
whelmed the casket bore the jewel upon its bosom 
to the presence of the Redeemer. It was short- 
ening their pilgrimage in time. It was the trans- 
lation of their spirits from a world dismantled by 
the flood, over which they would have looked and 
wept and wandered many-yeared and miserable 
pilgrims, to a world where there are — 

" No griefs to feel, no fears to beat away ; 
The past unsigh'd for, and the present sure." 

It was really harvest treading on the skirts of 
spring, the reward of grace without wages, and 
glory anticipating grace. 

It has been asserted, that if the doctrine I have 
laid down be true, it must necessarily imply that 
there is no such doctrine as election ; for if scrip- 
ture reveals such a doctrine, we cannot but presume 



28 INFANT SALVATION. 

that some of half the human race who die in in- 
fancy are elect, and that others of the same class 
are non-elect. "We reply, that whatever be the 
meaning or the truth of the doctrine of election, 
it has very little, as far as I can see, to do with this 
question. If it has, as the Confession of Faith 
seems to indicate, we may fairly confirm our doc- 
trine by it, and maintain what I have already inti- 
mated, that all children who die in infancy are 
elect children ; that they are not the punished and 
proscribed, but the peculiar favourites of God — the 
predestined subjects of glory, to whom He has 
manifested, without works and without merit, the 
riches of his grace, remitting the largest proportion 
of even the temporal consequences of the primeval 
curse^ and receiving them to the enjoyment of the 
blessing ere they have even known what it is to 
earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, or to 
labour for the better bread. In their case election 
may have its richest illustration, and sovereignty 
its sublimest victory. Thus the doctrine of elec- 
tion, from which many recoil, may have one aspect 
at least which every one must hail ; and what is 
denounced by some as a doctrine wrapped in terror 
and fraught with w r rath may, after all, be one of 
mercy and goodness. I believe that it is so. It is 
in all cases love in its irresistible power, laying hold 
of the resisting sinner, and transforming him by 
its power, and leaving him not till it lifts him to 
glory. It is simply grace. And admit that God's 
love must visit us before our love can respond to 



INFANT SALVATION. 29 

and rest on him, and you admit all that is essential 
in the doctrine of election. 

It has been also objected, that the number of the 
saved is represented in scripture always as small in 
comparison with the number of the lost. For in- 
stance, it is declared : " Many are called, but few 
are chosen." Matt. vii. 13: " Enter ye in at the 
strait gate : for wide is the gate, and broad is the 
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there 
be which go in thereat : because strait is the gate, 
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life ; 
and few there be that find it." It is therefore 
argued, that the fact of so great a proportion of 
the human race being eventually saved, is, if true, 
incompatible with these and similar statements. 
But the text referred to, it will be easily seen, is 
applicable exclusively to adults, and by no possible 
stretch of language can it be applied to infants. 
Infants cannot be "called," because they are inca- 
pable of listening or yielding obedience to a call ; 
they are therefore incapable of rejecting it. Adults 
only can accept or refuse; they alone are the 
" called," and of them, it is true, painfully true, 
the "few are chosen." It is a truth as painful to 
the heart as it is palpable to the eye, that of the 
adults the great majority live far from God, 
"strangers to the covenant of promise." If we 
take the case of London, for instance, the metro- 
polis of the world, we shall find that perhaps 
600,000, or probably nearer a million, out of its 
two millions, never enter a place of worship at all : 
3* 



30 INFANT SALVATION. 

and of those who do enter places of worship, how 
few are there whose hearts are really savingly 
touched, whose souls are truly renewed, who have 
felt the gospel not merely in its letter, but in its 
spirit, — not only as a word, but as the wisdom and 
power of God ! All this one feels most deeply ; 
but we must not forget, that, whilst scripture and 
statistics too represent the number of adults that 
now reject the gospel as still many, the same scrip- 
ture represents the sum total of the saved by the 
gospel, at the close of this present dispensation, as 
very numerous. Its language is that of " a multi- 
tude no man can number.'' It was promised, that 
Abraham's seed (that is, Christians) should be 
" like the stars of heaven for multitude ;" that they 
should be upon the earth as the dew-drops of the 
morning ; that they should be like the sands upon 
the sea-shore. And, therefore, while it may seem 
true that a majority of adults are lost in the present 
day, and under the present dispensation, it is still 
not true, and there is no reason for thinking it true, 
(and this is a delightful fact,) that the majority of 
the human race as a whole, will be ultimately and 
finally lost. If half the human race die in infancy, 
and if infants be universally saved, then will evolve 
the result that must occasion feelings of joy and 
holy gratitude to every heart, that the great majo- 
rity of the human race shall be saved ; and that, 
instead of a small number only, as some have sup- 
posed, eventually reaching glory, "a great multi- 
tude, whom no man can number," shall "stand 



INFANT SALVATION. 31 

before the throne with palms in their hands, kings 
and conquerors and priests, through Him that loved 
them and washed them in his blood, and redeemed 
them out of every kindred and people and tongue." 

"We purposely abstain from even mentioning 
many other objections to the proposition we in- 
tend to demonstrate. A fertile fancy and a repug- 
nance to a truth may invent innumerable objec- 
tions to it. Abuses also may be appended to it; but 
for these it is not answerable. Use is God's design; 
abuse is the perversion of man. Heaven's best 
blessings have been perverted. Evil men can turn 
any mercy into means of evil. It is one of the 
effects of sin, that man has in every instance the 
secret of that awful chemistry which can transmute 
a blessing into a bane, and distil deadly poison 
from precious truths. The tarantula spider extracts 
noxious venom from the most delicious blossoms. 
So man can extract poison from the fruits of the tree 
of life, and death from the very leaves which are for 
the healing of the nations of the earth. But to 
object to a doctrine because it may be abused, or to 
reject it because it may be misapplied or perverted, 
is just to imitate the man who would cut down a 
beautiful fruit-tree because caterpillars find food 
from its leaves, and spiders weave their webs amid 
its branches. We must test conclusions by "the 
law and the testimony," and not by the real or 
anticipated abuses to which they may be open. 

Grace has been made the pretext for licentious- 
ness ; and that cross on which man's sins ought to 
be crucified has been used to cover and conceal them. 



INFANT SALVATION. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Having thus cleared the way for the application 
of positive reasons for the universal salvation of in- 
fants, we now proceed to unfold these reasons as 
succinctly as possible. 

It will be admitted by all, that the bodies of 
infants will be raised at the resurrection morn. On 
this there can scarcely be a doubt. The language 
of Scripture is explicit — "I saw the dead, small 
and great," (that is, infants and adults,) " stand 
before God;" "and the sea gave up the dead 
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up 
the dead which were in them;" and "all that are 
in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of 
Man, and shall come forth." This great resurrec- 
tion embraces all ages and all climes. "We must 
include in this mighty assemblage numbers of in- 
fants as well as adults : they are among the " all." 
To this the apostle seems to allude, when he says, 
"every one shall be raised in his own order." 
The literal translation is, "in his own class:" in- 
fants in their class, adults in their class; males in 
their class, females in their class — "every one in 
his own order." Now, if it be true that the bodies 
of infants are to be raised from the grave, we may 
fairly inquire, what may be the purpose or design 



TNFANT SALVATION. 33 

of thus raising their sleeping dust from its resting- 
place, and reuniting each infant soul to its body ? 
It cannot be to be judged: for the judgment pro- 
ceeds according to works done in the body, and in- 
fants have done no works : by these the} 7 can neither 
stand nor fall. In every record of the judgment 
morn, the statement is, that it proceeds, not accord- 
ing to the merit of works, (far from that,) but ac- 
cording to works as the manifestation of a principle 
of grace within. It is therefore obvious, that infants, 
having had neither the opportunity nor the physi- 
cal power of manifesting character by their conduct 
upon earth, cannot be raised to be judged accord- 
ing to the deeds done in the body : they are not 
just subjects of the judgment ordeal. It cannot 
deal with them. In the next place, infants cannot 
be raised to be condemned, soul and body, to ever- 
lasting punishment. Because such punishment is 
not a part of the original curse that was pronounced 
upon Adam. The curse pronounced upon Adam 
was, "Thou shalt surely die:" that is, the soul 
shall die, and the body shall die ; and w r hen the 
one is severed from the other, the penalty is ex- 
hausted. The punishment apportioned to them 
who have either rejected the overtures of the glo- 
rious gospel, or have stained their souls with sin 
and their hands with wickedness, can never, surely, 
be the desert of infants. They can be the subjects 
of no other than the primitive curse. But to raise 
their bodies again, and to reunite them to their 
souls in order to suffer, would be as unjust as it 



34 INFANT SALVATION. 

would be unwarranted, because it would be appor- 
tioning greater punishment than the original sen- 
tence contained. It w^ould be the infliction of a 
doom severer than God pronounced in Paradise. 
But God's truth never errs, either in excess or 
short-coming. We, therefore, conclude, that when 
infants are raised from the dead, they are so raised 
not to be judged, for there are no works according 
to which they can be judged; they are not raised 
to suffer, because this would be unmerited excess 
of the original sentence. Why are they raised? 
What can be the design of this act? They are 
raised, surely, in order to be admitted into the 
realms of glory ; that, reclothed with more august 
apparel than Adam lost, they may take their place 
in the midst of those who have "washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." 

But this presumption amounts almost to cer- 
tainty, if we bear in mind, that if infants' bodies 
are raised from the dead, then is there in this fact, 
what is most important, the actual removal of half 
the primeval curse ; for its penalty was thq death 
of soul and body both. Now, if we find that the 
body is raised, which is the removal of half the 
curse, may we not, in full harmony with the pre- 
sumptions of reason, and, above all, in perfect coin- 
cidence with the merciful genius of the gospel, in- 
fer that the other half of the curse is remitted also ? 
and that the soul and body shall be reunited, to 
inherit together everlasting happiness ? 



INFANT SALVATION. 35 

We are also to connect with this fact the truth, 
that this resurrection of their bodies is the direct 
fruit of the atonement and resurrection of Christ ; 
because if Christ had not died and risen again, 
there had been no resurrection. The very resurrec- 
tion of the body is the result of the atonement of 
Christ; and in that sense it extends to every man. 
Now if infants' bodies are raised from the dead, 
and this wholly through Christ's resurrection, and 
as the result of His perfect atonement, and if thus 
half the curse is remitted by the efficacy of the 
Saviour's blood, and by the virtues of His resur- 
rection from the dead, may we not infer that the 
other half will be remitted also, and that soul and 
body will live and rejoice together in the presence 
of the Lord for ever ? 

With respect to those who are born amid the 
means of grace and opportunities of mercy, there 
is one only cause given in the gospel for their con- 
demnation, viz., their wilful rejection of the gospel: 
" This is the condemnation, that light is come into 
the world, and men love darkness better than light, 
because their deeds are eviL" "He that believeth 
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
abideth on him." And again, "Ye will not come 
to me that ye may have life." If, then, this be the 
almost only condemning sin, w T hich consigns those 
who are guilty of it to misery, it is clear, from the 
nature of the case, that infants never committed 
that sin, because they are physically and morally 
incapable of it. Since, therefore, infants have not 



36 INFANT SALVATION. 

committed the only condemning sin, they cannot 
and will not be ranked amid the condemned here- 
after. 

l^orwill it alter the conclusion to which we have 
come, if it be alleged that infants will be tried by 
the standard according to which the destinies of 
the heathen, who never heard the gospel, will be 
decided. That standard is laid down by the great 
apostle of the Gentiles in Rome : " When the Gen- 
tiles, which have not the law, do by nature the 
things contained in the law, these, having not the 
law, are a law unto themselves : which show the 
works of the law written in their hearts, their con- 
science also bearing witness, their thoughts the 
meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, 
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men 
by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." This 
language contemplates responsible beings ; it pre- 
sumes they are capable of conduct in conformity or 
in contrariety to their convictions, and have within 
their bosoms, consciences to accuse or excuse the 
guilty. But these characteristics do not belong to 
infants. They cannot be the subjects in any sense 
of such a responsibility. They are unconscious of 
the distinctions that subsist between right and 
wrong. They do not comprehend the authority, 
nature, and obligations of law, unless vaguely and 
dimly. They cannot, therefore, be classed with 
unevangelized heathens at the judgment-day. This 
illustration is therefore totally inapplicable to in- 
fants. They can be accused neither of rejecting 



INFANT SALVATION. 37 

the gospel nor of violating the law. If grace can- 
not save them, which is not the case, we may be 
sure that works cannot condemn them. Moral 
inability is justly dealt with as sin. Physical in- 
ability is simply misfortune. 

Let it not be supposed that I deny the doctrine 
of original sin. To do so would be to deny fact 
and to dispute scripture. But of this I am fully 
persuaded — that none will be condemned for its 
taint alone. Satan introduced it; and if any should 
perish on this footing alone, it would be a trophy 
which Satan is not destined, we think, to cany away. 
There will not be one lost soul i*n misery who can 
blame any one but himself for his terrible doom. 
But, as far as I can judge of those representations 
of the state of the lost which scripture furnishes, I 
venture to assert, that infants are incapable of its 
sufferings. This is a strong assertion, but it is, I 
humbly think, a perfectly correct one. What are 
some of the scripture representations of hell? It 
is men who have "sown to the flesh," "reaping 
corruption;" it is men who have sown iniquity, 
reaping punishment. It is " the worm that never 
dieth" — an accusing conscience, the fell agony of 
ceaseless remorse — the remembrance of rejected 
grace — of abused mercies — of rebellion against 
God, and of war with duty and with conscience. 
These constitute "the worm that dieth not;" these 
make up and feed the flame of that "fire that is 
not quenched." But an infant is totally incapable i 
of those poignant sufferings — those stings and ago- 
4 



38 INFANT SALVATION. 

nies of remorse, — because an infant never resisted 
conscience, or wilfully violated duty, or committed 
a single deliberate transgression. Since, there- 
fore, these feelings of remorse are the chief ele- 
ments of the sufferings of the lost, and as infants, 
by their very nature, must be entire strangers to 
such feelings, it follows that they are incapable 
of suffering the fearful punishment of the lost, so 
far, at least, as the nature of that punishment 
can be ascertained from the pages of the inspired 
volume. 

But perhaps the most satisfactory proofs that de- 
ceased infants are universally saved, will be found 
in the fifth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans. It bears peculiarly on this subject. It 
beams hope and joy to weepers from every text. 
It discloses the fall slumbering under the sunbeams 
of the recovery, and the wrecks of sin presenting 
foretokens of the triumphs of grace, and on the 
withered stem of humanity it reveals buds of 
approaching beauty, and blossoms, and fruit. 

In the fourteenth verse we read, "Nevertheless 
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over 
them that had not sinned after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him 
that was to come." Now who are they that 
" have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's 
transgressions?" that is, by personal and actual 
transgression. Not the heathen, for they do " sin 
-after the similitude of it;" not professing Chris- 
tians, for they also "sin after that similitude." 



INFANT SALVATION. 39 

There is but one class who have not sinned actu- 
ally ^ and that is infants. The allusion, therefore, 
in this text refers ns, unquestionably, we submit, to 
infants, and of them it declares that " death reigned 
even over them that had not sinned after the simi- 
litude of Adam's transgression." "We cannot but 
here observe, as we pass, the happy place which 
infants occupy in this text. The first Adam was 
"a figure of Him that was to come," that is, the 
Second Adam, which is Christ. Now infants are 
placed, in this text, between the two Adams, in- 
heriting a taint from the first, but transferring that 
taint constantly to the second, which is "the Lamb 
of God that taketh away the sin of the world." 
They are here less the victims, and rather the con- 
ductors of the curse that comes down from the first, 
and the recipients wholly of the righteousness that 
is transferred from the second. They are thus 
connected with the first by natural descent ; and 
connected with the second by grace. Lost in the 
former, they are saved in the latter; they die in 
Adam, and they live in Christ. a 

Let us refer again to another part of this chap- 
ter. " If through the offence of one many be dead ; 
much more the grace of God, and the gift by 
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath 
abounded unto many. And not as it was by one 
that sinned, so is the gift : for the judgment was 
by one to condemnation ; but the free gift is of 
many offences unto justification. For if by one 
man's offence death reigned by one ; much more 



40 INFANT SALVATION. 

they which receive abundance of grace and of the 
gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, 
Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, 
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift 
came upon all men unto justification of life. More- 
over the law entered, that the offence might abound. 
But where sin abounded, grace did much more 
abound." Now it is asserted here, that just in the 
same way in which sin has been transmitted from 
the first Adam to all his posterity, righteousness is 
transferred from the Second Adam (who is Christ) 
to all mankind, if nothing interfere to arrest the 
transfer: this is the single exception. We find, 
that Adam's sin is transferred to all Adam's chil- 
dren without limitation ; and in the very same way, 
and by parity of reasoning, Christ's righteousness 
may be transferred to all mankind, the blessing 
being co-extensive with the curse, except where 
something interferes to divert it. In the case of 
adults, there is often an interposing obstruction : in 
other words, unbelief, or rejection of the gospel, 
forms a positive barrier against the entrance of the 
truth, and of that righteousness of which the truth 
is the vehicle. But in the case of infants there 
can be no such barrier; from the very condition 
they occupy, there can be raised up no such delibe- 
rate obstruction ; and, therefore, as the full flood of 
mercy and truth, of righteousness and peace, those 
intermingling elements of the great salvation, like 
a hallowed river, pours from heaven to earth, and 



INFANT SALVATION. 41 

spreads over the wide world, seeking admission 
into every man's hope, and access to every man's 
heart, and bearing on its bosom the hopes of glory, 
and the promises of joy, and the seals of peace to 
many souls ; it finds no obstruction to its entrance, 
in the case of infants, adequate to repel it, and 
therefore fills their hearts with its fulness, and rises 
with them to its level, and fits them for their glori- 
ous destiny. In these babes there is a channel by 
which Adam's sin has entered. It is not unscrip- 
tural to conclude thus, that by the very same chan- 
nel Christ's righteousness can enter too. 

Wilful and deliberate rejection seems to be the 
only act that shuts out the salvation of the gospel. 
It enters where there is such rejection. This argu- 
ment seems to me perfectly conclusive. The flood 
of offered mercy, being co-extensive with the flood 
of the overspreading curse, would reach every man 
and satisfy every man, if there were no barrier 
raised to repel it ; but in infant's hearts there is, as 
far as we know, no barrier, and therefore there it 
may enter, transforming the hearts it touches, 
saving and sanctifying the souls it reaches; and 
thereby infants' spirits as well as martyrs' souls, 
may, and do now stand before the throne of God 
and of the Lamb, arrayed in white, with palms of 
victory. 

It is also asserted by St. Paul as one character- 
istic of this dispensation, that, "where sin hath 
abounded, grace hath much more abounded." If, 

now, where sin hath abounded, the taint of original 
4* 



42 INFANT SALVATION. 

guilt has reached every infant, though incapable 
of any overt act by which it might identify itself 
with Adam, may we not presume, or rather infer, 
that, where " grace hath much more abounded'' the 
same infant may inherit the righteousness of Christ 
without any personal and voluntary reception of 
it, because it is, by its very condition as an infant, 
incapable of it? If, irrespective of personal de- 
merit, sin and death scathe the new-born babe, 
may not the glorious righteousness of Christ reach 
and recover it, though it have no personal merit, 
or have no exercise of that faith through which the 
atonement is usually conveyed to the guilty ? If 
sovereignty has left each babe beneath the upas- 
tree of which Adam ate and died, it is not pre- 
sumption to infer that the same sovereignty, of 
which the component elements are faithfulness, and 
love, and truth, will also place the same helpless 
babe, about to be gathered to eternity, beneath t^e 
transforming and refreshing shade of that tree of 
life whose " fruit is for food, and whose leaves are 
for the healing of the nations. " 

It may be objected here, that throughout the 
scriptures, salvation is represented as invariably 
tied to faith. True, it is ; but this of necessity 
refers to them only who are capable of exercising 
faith, that is to say, adults. To require faith in 
infants, is to require a physical impossibility, and 
if faith, the instrument of salvation, is the free gift 
of God in the case of every believing adult, may 
we not fairly presume that in the case of infants, 



INFANT SALVATION. 43 

who cannot receive the gift, because they have no 
ability to appreciate its nature or its object, God 
will bestow the end without it. He can work with, 
or without, or against means, when his own high 
purposes demand it. And in the case of deceased 
infants, there seems to be an occasion worthy of a 
suspension of ordinary means, in order to confer an 
extraordinary blessing. 

Here I cannot but quote a beautiful epitaph, in- 
scribed on a tombstone, beneath which repose the 
ashes of four infants, which conveys forcibly the 
truth we are now arguing : — 

" Bold Infidelity, turn pale and die. 
Beneath this stone four infants' ashes lie ; 
Say, are they lost or sav'd ? 
If death's by sin, they sinn'd : for they lie here. 
If heav'n's by works, in heav'n they can't appear. 
Reason, ah ! how deprav'd ! 

Revere the Bible's sacred page : the knot's untied ; 
They died, for Adam sinn'd ; they live, for Jesus died." 

Holy and beautiful is the thought. The Second 
Adam is seen surrounded with the infant heirs of 
joy, whom the first Adam ruined, now, however, 
reclaimed and restored. These infants tasted death 
that it might be seen how truly our first forefather 
wrecked us all ; but have now received everlasting 
life, that it may be seen and celebrated throughout 
eternity, that "where sin hath abounded, grace 
hath much more abounded." 

It would also appear, from Scripture, that one 
leading design of its own author, our Lord and 



44 INFANT SALVATION. 

Saviour Jesus Christ, is the destruction of Satan 
and the depression of his pride — so much so, that 
it shall be seen in eternity, that not one particle of 
his malignant policy has prevailed, nor one of his 
prospects been realized. 

Now it does seem, if departed infants be not 
universally saved, that Satan has obtained no small 
amount of his anticipated victories. In seducing 
Adam and Eve, Satan meant, either, on the one 
hand, to force God to destroy this world, in which 
His smiles gave beauty to so many blossoms, and 
His breath fragrance to so many flowers, of which 
He himself had pronounced the verdict "very 
good ;" or, on the other hand, to lead God to pro- 
nounce one universal and indiscriminate amnesty 
upon every creature that had transgressed, and 
thereby unhinge His moral government, connive 
at crime, and compromise the claims of holiness 
and truth. It was his design to lead the Almighty 
either to destroy this beautiful world and its rational 
offspring, as a baulked and disappointed Creator, 
or when the creature sinned, to pardon all the sin, 
and thus dissolve the fixed and everlasting tie that 
connects sin with suffering, and iniquity with death. 
These were the extremes, either of which Satan 
made sure of accomplishing. In both he is tho- 
roughly disappointed. The atonement is the glo- 
rious solution of seemingly inextricable difficulties, 
— it has inscribed the lesson on the floors of hea- 
ven, and upon the acres of the earth, which saints 
read and worship, and sinners see and fear. " The 



INFANT SALVATION. 45 

wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal 
life." But if infants are lost, not because of per- 
sonal transgression, but because of their connexion 
with the first Adam, Satan has so far triumphed ; 
nay, if this be so, half of the human race are 
ruined for ever by Satan's policy alone, and with- 
out any personal guilt or iniquity of their own. 
But we know this cannot be — we know that the 
serpent's head is bruised — and that what he thought 
would be his crowns of victory, shall be burning 
brands about his temples. He shall not prevail. 
He will not be able to point out one lost soul in 
hell as the fruit of his malignity. It is there 
because it wilfully refused the only deliverer. It 
chose the curse, and put away the blessing. 

Infants, however, are not lost, for none shall 
perish but those that reject the cure ; none shall 
inherit the serpent's curse, but those that imbibe 
the serpent's spirit. And on the other hand, all 
who are saved are saved only through the media- 
tion and by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus ; God's 
love provided the sacrifice, and His glory is the 
result to which it leads. Every portion of the 
scheme of mercy is the gift of love, the conception 
of wisdom ; and on every doctrine is inscribed the 
name, aud from every victory it wins will evolve 
the honour of Deity. 

Xo portion of the glory of the saved shall be- 
long to any creature in heaven or earth, and no- 
thing of the woe and misery to which the lost have 
sunk shall be attributed by the victims to any but 



46 INFANT SALVATION. 

themselves. Neither shall man be lost — nor the 
world destroyed — nor God dishonoured by the po- 
licy of Satan. The very reverse shall be the fact. 
Not one soul shall be lost because of Satan's suc- 
cess in Paradise. On the contrary, his momentary 
and apparent triumph shall be overruled by Infinite 
"Wisdom, to be the means of bringing many sons 
to a greater happiness, and of giving greater glory 
to God. They that perish, perish by their rejection 
of Christ's gospel, not by their inheritance of 
Adam's sin. Not Satan's success, but their own 
suicidal resistance of truth necessitates their doom. 
Satan's kingdom is destroyed, and Satan's expec- 
tations are crushed by the very nature of the gos- 
pel; and thus, if deceased infants be universally 
saved through grace, as these statements seem to 
imply, there will be left to Satan not one single 
fragment or wreck that he can quote as a proof 
of the success of his stratagems, or a fruit of his 
wickedness in the garden of Eden. 

Thus his head will be crushed — thus the very 
victims he hoped to retain as symbols of his might 
are snatched from his fangs, and enrolled in the 
Lamb's book of life as heirs of happiness ; and 
those who sink into the abyss in which u ]ife dies, 
and death lives," will be there, not murdered by 
Satan, but suicides — not proofs of the power of his 
will, but the monuments of the awful infatuation 
of their own depraved hearts. 

In the eighth Psalm there is presented another 
proof of the salvation of infants, an unequivocal 



INFANT SALVATION. 47 

intimation that amid the multitudes that grace the 
triumphs of the Son of God, infants will not be 
wanting — " Lord our Lord ! how excellent is Thy 
name in all the earth ! who hast set Thy glory 
above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes 
and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because 
of Thine enemies, that thou mightest still the 
enemy and the avenger." The apostle Paul, in 
reasoning upon this very Psalm in the epistle to 
the Hebrews, quotes it as descriptive of Christ in 
the days of His final triumph. It is in the second 
chapter. "But one in a certain place testified, 
saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of 
him ? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him ? 
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; 
Thou crown edst him with glory and honour, and 
didst set him over the works of Thy hands; Thou 
hast put all things in subjection under his feet. 
For in that He put all in subjection under him, He 
left nothing that is not put under him. But now 
we see not yet all things put under him. But we 
see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the 
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with 
glory and honour; that he by the grace of God 
should taste death for every man." The sacred 
penman states, that the Psalm refers to that period 
when Christ shall reign from sea to sea-— all rebel- 
lious elements being laid prostrate, and creation 
clothed afresh with more than its pristine holiness, 
and beauty, and bliss. Amid the anthem-peal of 
praise that rises up to Him from the redeemed 



48 INFANT SALVATION. 

earth, the Psalmist hears infant treble beautiful 
and welcome in the rich diapason : " Out of the 
mouth of babes and sucklings." Some of the 
sweetest hymns which shall be heard in the millen- 
nial era, will be infant hymns ; amid the harmony 
that rolls around the throne, will be melodies by 
infant voices expressive of the gratitude and joy 
of full infant hearts. How precious is the truth, 
that parents, if saints of God, shall join in the 
songs of heaven with their departed babes, who 
have already struck the key-note, and wait for 
them to join with them. 

In the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, we 
have an outline of the proceedings of the judg- 
ment-day, which also bears somewhat on this 
topic: "I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God; and the books (the plural number) 
were opened." There are two books symbolically 
referred to in Scripture : the book in which are the 
names and deeds of the unbelieving, and the book 
in which are the names and deeds of the children 
of God. Now after these two books had been 
opened, we read, " And another book was opened, 
which is the book of life." We connect this with 
the eleventh chapter of Eevelation — "And the 
nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and 
the time of the dead that they should be judged, 
and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy 
servants the prophets, and unto the saints and them 
that fear Thy name, small and great" At the pro- 
duction of these three books, infants, or the small, 



INFANT SALVATION. 49 

are present with the great, and, therefore, we may 
presume, that, while the two books contain the 
deeds of the evil, and the deeds of the good ; the 
third book, which is "the Lamb's book of life," is 
that in which the names of the lambs of the flock 
are written, the memorial and record of those who 
barely lived before they died, who had scarcely 
breathed the air of time when they were trans- 
ferred to breathe the sweeter and the balmier 
atmosphere of eternity. 

We cannot conceive what other record that can 
be "which is the Lamb's Book of Life." If it be 
what we have alleged, then upon its tablets the 
names of our infants now in glory are inscribed. 
Theirs is a peculiar case, and theirs, therefore, is a 
specific but glorious record. Each name is illu- 
minated with everlasting splendour, while each 
possessor is bathed in that flood which is " fulness 
of joy for evermore." 

On no other ground, we may also observe, than 
on that of the universal safety of deceased infants, 
can we account for the vast multitudes declared in 
Scripture to be ultimately saved. The various ex- 
pressions used in Scripture respecting the final sal- 
vation of men, unquestionably imply that a very 
great number will be eternally saved. "After this 
I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man 
could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and 
people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and 
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and 
palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, 



50 INFANT SALVATION. 

saying, Salvation to our God- which sitteth upon 
the throne, and unto the Lamb." "A great 
multitude which no man can number," is the cha- 
racteristic of the finally saved ; showing that it is 
not a minority, but a majority, that shall at last be 
admitted to glory. Christ in numbers, as in glory, 
shall have the pre-eminence. In the nineteenth of 
Revelation, again, we read, " And I heard as it were 
the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of 
many waters:" another expression denoting the 
vast number of the saved. Again : Christ is to 
" bring many sons unto glory." And again: 
" Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
many." And again: "As by one man's disobe- 
dience many were made sinners, so by the obe- 
dience of one shall many be made righteous." 

This is a sweet and blessed thought. The great 
multitude of mankind will not be lost ; a minority 
only w T ill perish. The prospect dilates the heart of 
all philanthropy, and destroys the objections of 
sceptics and infidels. They wrong our faith who 
call it narrow. They wrong its fountain also when 
they pronounce His mercies few. The myriads 
shall mount to glory. Minorities only will sink to 
hell, and this not because there is not room or wel- 
come in heaven. 

There are texts expressly asserting the safety of 
dead infants which we have not yet quoted. There 
is, for instance, one passage descriptive of David's 
feelings on the loss of his infant, which, with its 
context, throws light on this subject. "And the 



INFANT SALVATION. 51 

Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto 
David, and it was very sick. David, therefore, be- 
sought God for the child ; and David fasted, and 
went in and lay all night upon the earth. And the 
elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise 
him up from the earth : but he would not, neither 
did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass 
on the seventh day that the child died. And the 
servants of David feared to tell him that the child 
was dead : for they said, Behold, while the child 
was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would 
not hearken unto our voice ; how will he then vex 
himself, if we tell him that the child is dead ! But 
when David saw that his servants whispered, David 
perceived that the child was dead : therefore David 
said unto his servants, Is the child dead ? And 
they said, He is dead. Then David arose from 
the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and 
changed his apparel, and came into the house of 
the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his 
own house ; and when he required, they set bread 
before him, and he did eat. Then said his servants 
unto him, "What thing is this that thou hast done ? 
thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was 
alive ; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise 
and eat bread. And he said, While the child was 
yet alive, I fasted and wept : for I said, Who can 
tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the 
child may live ? But now he is dead, wherefore 
should I fast ? can I bring him back again ? I shall 



52 INFANT SALVATION. 

GO TO HIM, BUT HE SHALL NOT RETURN TO ME." 

2 Sam. xii. 15—23. 

If ever there was a case where the infant might 
be expected to suffer hereafter for the father's sin, 
it was that of David as described in this passage. 
Yet David's conviction of his own sin, expressed 
so poignantly in the fifty-first Psalm, and anxiety 
about his own spiritual safety, did not cloud his 
assurance of the safety of this babe. He hoped, he 
felt sure, to meet him in that purer and better land 
whither he had gone before him. 

But in the Gospel of St. Mark, chap. x. verse 14, 
we have a still more conclusive proof of the happy 
destiny of dead infants. Rude nature attempted 
to repel the infants which were borne on their 
mothers' bosoms to their Saviour King; but He 
who ever spake as man never spake, rebuked the 
refusals of man, and opened the bosom of God as 
the home of infants : " Of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." These words, however, have been mis- 
apprehended by some. It has been asserted, that 
all we collect from them is, that " of such child- 
like nature are they who enter the kingdom of 
heaven." But surely this interpretation is forced 
and unnatural. It is not sense to say, " Suffer in- 
fants to come unto me ; for of adults with child- 
like character is the kingdom of heaven." The 
true and literal interpretation is, " of such infants 
is heaven chiefly made up." In other words, the 
larger proportion of the inhabitants of heaven are 
those who died in infancy. This is the interpreta- 



INFANT SALVATION. 53 

tion of the most judicious commentators. It is the 
natural one too. 

Abraham Booth says, " This text has a smiling 
aspect on the final destiny of infants.'' Doddridge 
says, " It means, that of infants the kingdom of 
heaven is chiefly composed." Dwight coincides 
with Doddridge. John Newton says, " Departed 
infants make up the innumerable company that is 
now in glory.' ' Toplady and Wesley, differing in 
many points, agree that this text proves the sal- 
vation of departed infants. Bishop Horsley is of 
the same opinion. Lastly, Bishop Taylor saj^s, 
" Christ took upon Him our nature to sanctify and 
save it, and passed through the several periods of 
it, even unto death, w r hich is the symbol of old 
age ; and, therefore, it is certain that Christ did 
sanctify all the periods of life : and why should He 
be an infant but that infants should receive the 
crown of their age, the purification of their stained 
nature, the sanctification of their persons, and the 
saving of their souls, by their infant Lord and their 
elder Brother?" 

It jars with all the feelings of humanity and rea- 
son to suppose that the Saviour, who blessed them 
on earth, rejected them in heaven — that He who 
welcomed them around him in his humiliation, 
should repel them from his presence in his glory. 
Can we suppose, that when these infants died in 
infancy, (and that some of them did die in infancy 
is extremely probable,) the very same voice that 
said in tones of mercy, " Suffer these infants to 
5* 



54 INFANT SALVATION, 

come unto me," would say to those very infants at 
the judgment-seat, " Depart, ye cursed, into ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels?" 
It is impossible. The same mouth, on the same 
subjects, and with the same amount of merit or de- 
merit, cann ot pronounce at once blessing and cursing. 
These infant buds, therefore, that seem nipt on 
earth, are merely removed to heaven, there to un- 
fold themselves in everlasting bloom. JTature 
leaves them pining upon earth, but Grace takes 
them in her gentle hand, wraps them in her warm 
bosom, and wafts them away to the better land. 

" See, then, how soon the flowers of life decay, 
How soon terrestrial pleasures fade away. 
A star of comfort for a moment given, 
Just rose on earth, then set to rise in heaven. 
Redeem'd by God from sin, releas'd from pain, 
Its life were punishment, its death is gain. 
Though it be hard to bid thy heart divide, 
To lay the gem of all thy love aside, 
Faith tells thee, (and it tells thee not in vain,) 
That thou shalt meet thine infant yet again. 
"While yet on earth thine ever-circling arms 
Held it securest from surrounding harms ; 
Yet even there disease could aim the dart, 
Chill the warm cheek, and stop the flutt'ring heart ; 
No ill can reach it now; it rests above, 
Safe in the bosom of celestial love. 
Its short, but yet tempestuous way is o'er, 
And tears shall trickle down its cheek no more. 
Then far be grief; faith looks beyond the tomb, 
And heaven's bright portals sparkle thro' the gloom. 
If bitter thoughts and tears in heaven could be, 
It is thine infant that should weep for thee." 



INFANT SALVATION. 55 

Mrs. Wilson writes very sweetly : " It is only 
my child's mortal part that rests in silence ; his 
spirit is with God in his temple above. He is one 
of the redeemed, who now throng the courts of 
heaven, and surround the throne of the Most High. 
Boundless perfection constitutes his felicity, un- 
ceasing praises dwell upon his lips, his holiness is 
for ever perfected, and his afiections are made to 
flow in ever-during channels, toward the Source of 
infinite perfection, and through all those suboi^i- 
nate streams where it is distributed. The light of 
heaven encircles him, and its splendours delight 
his soul. His vision is unclouded, and penetrates 
into the deep things of God. I see him among the 
glorious throng, now bending in holy adoration of 
the majesty of heaven, now a commissioned mes- 
senger of mercy to other and far distant worlds. 
Perhaps he hovers now around our dwelling ; per- 
haps he will stand at heaven's portals, and be the 
first to usher us into the presence-chamber of the 
King. Shall I then continue to shed unavailing 
tears, and selfishly repine at the short, the momen- 
tary separation ? He will never return to us, but 
we shall go to him. In regard to our beloved 
child, we can take up the triumphant song, '0 
death, where is thy sting ? grave, where is thy 
victory ?'" 



56 INFANT SALVATION. 



CHAPTER V. 

The death of an infant is a very solemn and a 
very impressive spectacle. It is not natural, — it is 
most unnatural. To see a beautiful face, unfolding 
bright visions of coming sweetness, bespread with 
holy calm, and imaging forth the features of its 
father, become channelled with tears, and tender 
organs become the instruments only of weeping 
and of crying, must pain a stranger, and still more 
a parent. Without the page of Christianity there 
is no solution of the awful mystery, nor any com- 
fort to the mourner. There is something in the 
scene that tells us that some fell disaster has over- 
taken our race and marred its primeval glory. 
God never made us so ; God did not intend that 
we should be so. Death is not a native of our 
world, or an emanation from heaven. It is a 
foreigner, an invader, a usurper. 

God created us to live for ever. Sin introduced 
death, and every hillocked grave we look upon, 
every death we witness, every mourner we see upon 
the streets, preaches to us in no dumb eloquence, 
"the wages of sin is death." 

Upon the pallid face of the dead infant, there 
are awfully mysterious hieroglyphics, which reason 
cannot decipher, which nature witnessing weeps. 



INFANT SALVATION. 57 

Christianity alone reads them. She pours from 
the fountain of truth living light into each dark 
symbol, and illuminates it with the rays of the 
past, and the lights of the future. The gospel ex- 
plains to us the nature, effects, and issues of sin. 
It shows us that sin is a fearful evil. Life's sorest 
calamities are nothing when compared with the 
essential evil compressed in that monosyllable, sin. 
We must strive against it in the strength of God 
the Holy Spirit. May He pierce our hearts with a 
new consciousness of its evil, with a new and in- 
tenser thirst after emancipation from its thraldom, 
its misery, and its spread ! 

"What lessons do we gather from the faces of the 
infant dead ? Does it not seem as if the dead in- 
fant had been given of God for no purpose ? we are 
sometimes tempted to ask. Does it not look like 
a blank, or something that has failed to answer the 
great end of its being ? Not at all. Nothing in 
the universe of God fails to answer its end. The 
ephemera that starts into life at sunrise, and dies 
at sunset, answers the end of its existence as truly 
as the hierarch that waits before the throne. In 
like manner the infant that lives one hour, and 
spends that hour in cries, accomplishes the end of 
its existence — it may be, a sublime and solemn 
destiny. Living and dying, it acts upon the world: 
— " Being dead it speaketh." We believe that 
the infant in its brief and weeping pilgrimage 
preaches more eloquently than the pastor in the 
pulpit, and by its death seals its testimony as 



58 INFANT SALVATION. 

x 

solemnly as the martyr at the stake. What is a 
dead infant but an ambassador of God, arrayed, 
not in the robes of the priest, but in the weeds of 
the grave, who has preached by its example to a 
family, " The wages of sin is death; but the gift 
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
Lord," — and sealed that lesson by its own depar- 
ture ? Each dead infant has been honoured to be 
a minister and martyr both, and now reaps the joy 
of each. It is a herald in time, and an heir in 
eternity. There is a grandeur about its cradle, and 
a sublimity reposing on its grave which we do well 
to ponder. God consecrates many ministers whom 
man refuses to hear. 

How consoling are the views which this subject 
presents to those parents who are bereaved of their 
children ! Theirs is privilege as well as pain. Of 
the destiny of their little ones who have preceded 
them we have no manner of doubt. It has not 
been thus with all Christian parents : Job saw his 
sons and his daughters in the meridian of age laid 
prostrate before him. Aaron beheld his two sons 
struck down by the bolt of heaven, in the midst of 
their rebellion against God. But it can be little 
painful in comparison, to the Christian parent, to 
behold the infant die, because he knows that that 
infant has been forgiven not only its original sin, 
but forgiven, in addition, through the rich mercy 
of God, its seventy years of weary pilgrimage. It 
has gained the crown without the turmoil ; it has 
reached the goal without running off the course . 



INFANT SALVATION. 59 

its harvest has been heaped upon its seed-time ; it 
has reaped without sowing. It has been invested 
with distinguishing privilege ; and surely no Chris- 
tian parent would wish an infant back again to 
earth. Could you say, let me ask of every parent 
that has lost an infant — could you say to your in- 
fant, if it were to come back, " Weep no more, my 
child ?" Could you dry all the tears from its eye, 
so that it should mourn no more ? What could 
you promise it ? Seventy years of sore pilgrimage 
at the very best, in a w r orld where men must be- 
come almost martyrs to get their daily bread ; 
where all is hollow, deceptive, unreal, and where 
every moment as it speeds tells us that the great 
ocean-tide of eternity is rising and rolling on, and 
carrying millions unprepared to the judgment-seat 
of God. Better is the babe in its Father's home. 
We must not wish to recall it. The tears of nature 
are wiped away by the hand of grace. We will 
not sorrow because our infants are removed. Let 
us rather rejoice. " The Lord gave and the Lord 
hath taken away. Blessed be His name;" and 
" blessed are the dead that die in Him, for they 
rest from their labours." They go (happy and 
holy ones !) from a life of martyrdom to a life of 
millennial blessedness ; and if an infant tongue in 
heaven could be audible on earth, that infant's 
tongue would say — Weep not for me ; "if ye loved 
me, ye would rejoice, because I am gone unto my 
Father." 



60 INFANT SALVATION. 

THE DYING INFANT TO ITS MOTHER. 

Cease here longer to detain me, 

Fondest mother, drowned in woe. 
Now thy kind caresses pain me : 

Morn advances — let me go. 

See yon orient streak appearing, 

Harbinger of endless day : 
Hark ! a voice the darkness cheering, 

Calls my new-born soul away. 

Lately launched, a trembling stranger, 
On the world's wild, boisterous flood, 

Pierced with sorrows, tossed with danger, 
Gladly I return to God. 

Now my cries shall cease to grieve thee, 
Now my trembling heart finds rest ; 

Kinder arms than thine receive me, 
Softer pillow than thy breast. 

There, my mother, pleasures centre ; 

Weeping, parting, care, or woe, 
Ne'er our Father's house shall enter: 

Morn advances — let me go. 

The hour is on the wing when we shall meet 
them, and mingle our hosannahs with theirs. 

There is something pleasing also in this fact: 
that every infant that you lose is a link that binds 
you to the grave, on the one hand, and a link also 
that binds you to eternity on the other. A portion 
of yourself has taken possession of the tomb, to re- 
mind you that you must lie down there. A soul 
that was related to yourself has taken possession of 
eternity, to remind you that you must enter there. 
Our bodies are, through our infants, in communion 



INFANT SALVATION. 61 

with the dust ; and our spirits, through theirs, with 
the everlasting throne. We are so disposed to 
strike the roots of our affections into this fading 
and fainting earth, that it becomes mercy on the 
part of God to send those chastisements, which 
loosen our affections from a world doomed to 
flame. Each infant that we lose is a tie (holy and 
happy truth !) less to bind us to this world, and a 
tie more to bind our hearts to that better world 
where our infants have preceded us. It is thus 
God gradually loosens the tree before it falls. 
Death thus loses half its pain before it overtakes 
us. Happy truth, if we realize it ! Happy lesson, 
if we feel it ! Good and gracious is that Father, 
who thus preaches to His people from the infant's 
bier, when they will not learn the lesson which 
they need from His ambassadors in the pulpit ! 

To unbelieving and unconverted parents, the 
death of their infant speaks in solemn and impres- 
sive tones. Those parents whose hearts dilate only 
with this world's vanities and follies, and not with 
that living peace which God can give, are sum- 
moned by their best feelings to the cross. Though 
they are guilty of violating Gad's law, and yet 
more in refusing Christ's gospel, their infants, if 
lost during the period of infancy, are not suffering 
the consequences of their parents' guilt ; they rest 
from their tears, they are snatched from the conta- 
gion of their company. Here is mercy to their 
souls as well as mercy to their bodies. Their in- 
fants are in perennial peace ; but if the parents die 
6 



62 INFANT SALVATION. 

unsaved, unsanctified, untransformed, unrenewed, 
a yawning chasm must separate them from their 
infants for ever and ever. Theirs will be the joy, 
but yours, unconverted reader, must be the sad- 
ness; theirs the blessing, but yours for ever the 
conscious and consuming curse. No interchange 
of love shall ever cross the gulf that severs you. 
The stroke that severs you in time severs you in 
eternity also. 

Does not the universal salvation of deceased in- 
fants cast a new and harmonizing light on God's 
providential dealings in the world? We often 
lament that the Chinese are infanticides and that 
the Hindoos are stained as a people with the 
murder of innocents ! Any one reasoning naturally 
upon this would say, This looks like a discord in 
the harmonious dealings of Providence, a depar- 
ture from the beneficence that seems otherwise to 
overflow the works of our heavenly Father. But 
the truth we have endeavoured to teach assures us 
there is mercy in this ministration : when infants 
are received to glory, the olive blooms on that 
murdered infant's tomb, and the palm waves in 
its infant hand, aiid the stroke that severs the soul 
from the heathen parent wafts it to the bosom of 
a holy God. From the worst barbarities of the 
heathen, God's love and wisdom thus extract bles- 
sings. He overrules the Hindoo mother forgetting 
her infant, and the Chinese mother sacrificing hers, 
to be the means of that infant's translation to a 



INFANT SALVATION. 63 

place of perpetual happiness and perennial joy. It 
throws a new light on what we have regarded as 
the most savage of heathen customs, the most un- 
natural of heathen practices. It tells us that, with 
all the numberless infants left to perish in the 
Ganges, or to die in the streets of Pekin, it is well. 
The earthly parent may forget the ties of nature, 
but the everlasting Parent forgets not the covenant 
of grace. These babes suffered for a minute, that 
they might inherit "a crown of glory that facleth 
not away." 

Weep, weep not o'er thy children's tomb, 

Rachel, weep not so ; 
The bud is cropt by martyrdom, 

The flower in heaven shall blow. 

Firstlings of faith ! the murderer's knife 

Hath missed its deadly aim ; 
The God for whom they gave their life 

For them to suffer came. 

Though evil were their days and few, 

Baptized in blood and pain, 
He knows them, whom they never knew, 

And they shall live again, 

Then weep not o'er thy children's tomb, 

Rachel, weep not so; 
The bud is cropt by martyrdom, 

The flower in heaven shall blow. 

Let all we have said bind us to the gospel with 
greater fervour and with greater force. Let us 
revere our holy faith, not for its outward forms, 



64 INFANT SALVATION. 

but for its inward spirit, its bright hopes, its deep 
comforts. That vision must be dim and that heart 
must be cold that cannot see or feel the grandeur 
of the gospel. It is not the robed priest, the 
golden shrine, the gorgeous ritual, the pealing 
organ, that are the ennobling characteristics of the 
Christian faith; these are the " beggarly elements. " 
The broken heart is God's dwelling-place; the 
holy thought, the peaceful acquiescence, consola- 
tion hanging over a death-bed, and hope pluming 
its wing upon the grave, the unswerving faith, 
the living joy, the holy life — these shed a consecra- 
tion over the humblest spot, which cathedrals have 
not, and attach us to our fathers' faith, from 
motives and principles which wrangling parties 
neither feel nor care for. 

Let us love the gospel. Let us anticipate its 
everlasting prospects, and thereby bring down a 
portion of heaven into our being upon earth. In 
that happy land are the good and great — patriarchs, 
prophets, martyrs, and faithful ministers — all whose 
sacred eloquence has stirred our affections, all whose 
holy lessons have built up within us the faith and 
the love of Christ. Our babes are there also. They 
constitute together one holy and happy brother- 
hood. They invite us to follow from their seats of 
blessedness. We say again, let us love the gospel. 
May its real hopes, and living truths, and rich con- 
solations, penetrate our hearts yet more profoundly. 
Let us, above all, live the gospel. May we toil, 



INFANT SALVATION. 65 

and suffer, and sacrifice, to spread it. May our 
spared children grow up to proclaim it, and " if 
needs be" to die for it. 

The following extract we venture to add, from 
the lectures of Dr. Chalmers on Rom. iv. 9 — 15. 

" This affords, we think, something more than a 
dubious glimpse into the question that is often put 
by a distracted mother, when her babe is taken 
away from her. "When all the converse it ever had 
with the world amounted to the gaze upon it of a 
few months, or a few opening smiles, which marked 
the dawn of felt enjoyment — and ere it had 
reached, perhaps, the lisp of infancy, it, all uncon- 
scious of death, had to wrestle through a period of 
sickness with its power, and at length to be over- 
come by it. — Oh ! it little knew what an interest it 
had created in that home where it was so passing 
a visitant ; nor, when carried to its early grave, 
what a tide of emotion it would raise among the 
few acquaintances it left behind it. On it baptism 
was impressed as a seal — and as a sign it was never 
falsified. — There was no positive unbelief in its 
little bosom, no resistance yet put forth to the 
truth, no love at all for the darkness rather than 
the light — nor had it yet fallen into that great con- 
demnation which will attach to all who perish 
because of unbelief, that their deeds are evil. 
It is interesting to know that God instituted cir- 
cumcision for the infant children of the Jews, and 
at least suffered baptism for the infant children of 
6* 



66 INFANT SALVATION* 

those who profess Christianity. Should the child 
die in infancy, the use of baptism as a sign lias 
never been thwarted by it — and may we not be 
permitted to indulge a hope so pleasing as that 
the use of baptism as a seal remains in all its 
entireness, that he who sanctioned the affixing of 
it to a babe, will fulfil upon it the whole expres- 
sion of this ordinance ? And when we couple with 
this the known disposition of our great Forerunner, 
the love that He manifested to children on earth, 
how He suffered them to approach his person — 
and lavished endearments and kindness upon them 
in the streets of Jerusalem, told his disciples that 
the presence and company of such as these in 
heaven formed one ingredient of the joy that was 
set before him. 

" Tell us if Christianity do not throw a pleasing 
radiance around an infant's tomb? And should 
any parent who hears us feel softened by the 
touching remembrance of a light that twinkled a 
few short months under his roof — and at the end 
of its little period, expired — we cannot think that 
we venture too far when we say, that he has only 
to persevere in the faith, and the following of the 
gospel, and that very light will again shine upon 
him in heaven. The blossom which withered here 
upon its stalk has been transplanted there to a 
place of endurance, and it will then gladden that 
eye which now weeps out the agony of an affection 
that has been sorely wounded — and in the name 



INFANT SALVATION. 67 

of Ilini who, if on earth, would have wept along 
with them, do we bid all believers present to sor- 
row not even as others which have no hope, but to 
take comfort in the thought of that country where 
there is no sorrow, no separation." 

" Oh, when a mother meets on high 
The babe she lost in infancy, 
Hath she not then, for pains and fears 

The day of woe, the watchful night, 
For all her sorrow, all her tears, 

An overpayment of delight V 9 



68 INFANT SALVATION. 



CHAPTER VI. 

There is a great personal and practical lesson 
we are slow to learn, though it has been not only 
learned, but illustrated in all who have preceded 
us. Job expressed it in these words: "I know 
that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house 
appointed for all living." Let us endeavour to im- 
press it on the hearts of parents who have lost their 
children, and to teach them to use and feel it. All 
around may be uncertain, but this is sure, — the fair- 
est form must mingle with the dust ; the strongest 
frame must be dissolved ; the most exalted in the 
circles of mankind must, one day, " say to corrup- 
tion, Thou art my mother; and to the worm, Thou 
art my sister." Every preacher of this truth must 
personally practise it. If we had the wings of the 
eagid, we cannot escape from it ; if the strength 
of the lion, we cannot resist it; if the riches of 
Croesus, we cannot bribe death; or if the voice 
of the nightingale, we cannot charm it away; 
were all our children around us, they could not de- 
fend us. It takes the monarch from his throne, 
the minister from his pulpit, the babe from the bo- 
som of its mother. It comes to all, without excep- 
tion ; only, like the wilderness pillar, what is glory 



INFANT SALVATION. 09 

to Israel is darkness to Egypt. Every eye that 
is now riveted on these words shall very soon be 
sealed in darkness ; every ear that now hears 
shall soon be deaf; and the pulse of every heart, 
still; and every home the habitation of another; 
and " the place that knows us now, shall know us 
no more for ever." 

Job said, "I know that thou wilt bring me to 
death, and to the house appointed for all living.' , 
Experience taught him this too frequently forgot- 
ten lesson. 

The history of his own household was to him 
the prophecy of his own dissolution. There were 
tombs beside him in the land of Uz, as there are 
around us in England ; and on the memorial tab- 
lets of his dead children, he had already inscribed 
as their epitaph, this creed : " The Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of 
the Lord." On the green acres of his native land 
there rose graves, like wavelets on the ebbing sea 
of life. It was sown with the dead. He himself 
stood upon the ashes of his children, a forest-tree 
reft of the parasite plants that gave it beauty in 
exchange for sustenance, naked, dismantled ; and 
every wind that swept past awoke amid the tossed 
and torn affections of his desolated heart — " I know 
that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house 
appointed for all living." Have we no similar me- 
mentos ? Are there not in our memories still the 
lingering echoes of the muffled bell ? Are there 
not in our homes broken circles whose arcs will not 



70 INFANT SALVATION. 

be complete till time be no more ? Look at the 
portrait on the wall— at the hatchment on the house 
—the hair in that locket— those books in the library 
— the mourners in the streets ; and does not every 
one of these fragments reflect a known likeness, 
and present a comment on this our text ? 

Job's own bodily sufferings intimated also the 
same result. These increased and accumulated, 
and plainly tended, unless arrested in the provi- 
dence of God, to dissolution. Disease is still the 
pioneer of death, the caterer for the grave. Every 
grey hair is evidence that death has breathed upon 
us ; every headache is the touch of the icy finger 
of death on the seat of life, constituting each in 
succession an earnest intimation from on high, 
" Set your house in order." 

Creation in the days of Job impressed on his 
mind the same conclusion. In the fourteenth 
chapter he shows he had thus learned, and gives 
instances of this teaching: "Man that is born of 
a woman is of few days, and full of trouble ; he 
cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down : he 
fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not." The 
whole of this chapter is replete with such imagery. 
Does not autumn still preach the death of the 
year? When its breath hath swept the forests of 
the earth, the very trees look like crowds of skele- 
tons shivering in the storm, yet pointing to the 
skies as if in expectancy of a revisit of the resur- 
rection of the spring. Night is the death of day. 
Sleep, which is peculiar to earth, unknown in hea- 



INFANT SALVATION. 71 

ven, and impossible in hell, is a semi-suspension 
of life — a type of death. Awake, we seem to have 
a hold of life ; asleep, we seem to have let life go, 
and to lie helplessly at the mercy of death. 

Job learned his lesson where we may learn it 
too, from divine teaching. He spoke, as did all 
the sacred writers, by the Spirit of God : " Naked 
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall 
I return thither." One would imagine that there 
would be very little necessity that God should teach 
a lesson every one cannot but see. One would 
imagine it as unnecessary to teach this, as that the 
needle points to the north. But if we may judge 
of the force of a conviction by the influence it ex- 
erts, we cannot but conclude, that in this instance, 
this is feeble indeed. We feel the truth in the text 
in its fullness and power, when we bury our dead ; 
but soon the pomps of time, the pageantry of cir- 
cumstance, and the excitements and rivalries of the 
world sweep over our hearts, and impressions we 
thought engraven by a pen of iron on the rock for 
ever, are effaced, like inscriptions ou the sand, by 
the first wave of the advancing tide. David, aware 
of this, prays, "Lord, make me to know mine end, 
and the measure of my days, that I may know how 
frail I am." "Teach us so to number our days, 
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." 

Let us here also learn who is the immediate dis- 
penser of death alike to ourselves and to our babes. 
" Thou wilt bring me to death." We are prone to 
attribute all to second causes. When death comes, 



72 INFANT SALVATION. 

we are often found saying, " If it had been so, it 
had been otherwise ; if such aid had been called 
in, if such precautions had been taken, my child 
had not died." Faith will raise its head above all 
such encompassing perplexities, and say, with Eli, 
"It is the Lord." Job, amid the dim lights of the 
patriarchal dispensation, could say, "Not the winds 
that smote, nor the Sabeans that assailed, but i the 
Lord, hath taken away/ " " Thou wilt bring me 
to death." " The hairs of our head are numbered," 
and the days of our life also. " Is there not an 
appointed time to man on earth ?" Disease has no 
infection and death no power, till the one is loosed 
and the other commissioned from God. He cuts 
down the flower, and, blessed thought ! He spares 
the green and takes the ripe. What comes, is "the 
cup my father hath given me to drink;" and when 
most inexplicable, we have still light enough to 
read — " "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
shalt know hereafter." Our feeling, however, in 
such circumstances, must not be the submission of 
slaves, but the acquiescence of sons. 

Let us notice, in the next place, Job's jyersonal 
application and appropriation of this truth — "I 
know that thou wilt bring me to death." For want 
of this, we miss the full effect of many of the most 
influential truths. Yet personal religion is empha- 
tically the religion of the Bible ; its truths are not 
only for humanity, but for me. "Thou hast 
brought my children, and Thou wilt bring me to 
death." " I know that my Redeemer liveth," " I 



TXFAXT SALVATION. 73 

know in whom J Lave believed. " " Whom have 1 
in heaven but Thee?" 

Do you thus translate Christianity from the im- 
personal into the personal? Do you feel, weeping 
mother, that the Bible was written and inspired as 
much for you, as if you were the only person in the 
universe ? Do you so search it ? Faith will enable 
you thus to concentrate scattered lights in one per- 
sonal focus, and in its light to see your own souls 
linked to all great and enduring things above, 
below, or around you. 

We have, next, the description of that change 
which our children have undergone in the words 
of Job. He calls it " death," and "the house ap- 
pointed for all living." Death is the child of sin, 
though grace has made it the servant of Jesus. It 
is not annihilation. It is the separation, how r ever, 
of soul and body ; the latter ceasing to live, and 
the former leaving its tenement of clay as the light- 
ning leaves its cloud, and changing, not its charac- 
ter, but its outward circumstances. The twain that 
God joined, death puts asunder; the holy w r edlock 
is dissolved, the widowed dust reposes in the tomb, 
and the living spirit returns to him w T ho gave it, to 
wait the sound of the last trump, and the heaving 
of the last earthquake. 

" When the judgment trumpet calls, 
Soul, rebuild thy house of clay, — 
Immortality its walls, 
And eternity its day." 



74 INFANT SALVATION. 

There is nothing natural or desirable in death 
itself. It is the disorganization of an exquisite 
structure, the dissolution of a casket second only 
in loveliness and beauty to the jewel it contains ; 
and, therefore, humanity, in all its instincts, shrinks 
from the catastrophe. " We that are in this taber- 
nacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that we 
would he unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality 
might be swallowed up of life." The apostle would 
brave the swellings of Jordan, but only because of 
the beauty of the land that lies beyond it. We are 
ready to pass through the fiery ordeal, because con- 
scious of the truth, that the skirts of our garments 
only shall be singed, while the soul, safe as in the 
citadel of God, shall only shine with greater lustre, 
rising on imperishable pinions, and resting not till 
it soars and sings with the seraphim beside the 
throne. 

The body will not only experience death, but 
come also to "the house appointed for all living." 

This is the only house that may be called the 
house of humanity. Into this house, palaces, 
courts, parliaments, churches, all incessantly pour 
forth their inmates. It is the abode of kings and 
queens, of nobles, clergy, peasants, and beggars; 
our fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, 
and babes are there. It absorbs and annihilates 
all the petty distinctions of humanity. It is the 
stand-point, seen from which illustrious castles and 
ancestral halls dwindle into diminutive and remote 
perspective. Around the green hillocks of the 



INFANT SALVATION. 75 

dead, every sect might feel Catholic, and bitter foes 
grow friendly, and jarring mankind become con- 
scious of the gravitating influence of essential and 
common brotherhood. 

it is a dark house — "a land of darkness and the 
shadow of death ; a land of darkness as darkness 
itself, and of the shadow of death, without any 
order, and where the light is as darkness.' ' 

There is no lamp suspended from its ceiling, no 
penetrating sunbeam, by the light of which the 
dead can read the promises or learn the doctrines 
of the Word of God. The first light that shall 
burst upon its chambers will be the twilight of an 
eternal day. 

It is a solitary house. Though the kings and 
councillors of the earth are there, and with them 
the myriad millions of mankind, yet is there no 
communion: each is as much alone, as if none 
else were there. 

It is also a silent house. " There the wicked 
cease from troubling, and there the weary be at 
rest. There the prisoners rest together ; they hear 
not the voice of the oppressor. The small and 
great are there, and the servant is free from his 
master." Though so many groups of the dead are 
there, yet all is silence without suspension. The 
tongue of the eloquent is dumb, and the ear of the 
once captivated hearer is deaf. The living preacher 
may make the tombstone his pulpit, and the green 
sod his fald-stool, but the sleepers beneath hear 
him not. Over them the chimes of sabbath bells 



76 INFANT SALVATION, 

may float, undulating in the air like a mother's 
brooding note, calling her children home : but they 
hear not. The first and only sound that will stir 
the ashes of the dead, or break the silence of the 
sepulchre, will be the knell of a dissolving world — 
"Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment." 

It is, too, an ancient house. Its first stone was 
laid in Paradise, and each generation since has 
been a layer added to it. Every living creature 
has risen like a wavelet, and kings, and nobles, 
and scholars, like wavelet crests on this ever-ebb- 
ing, ever-sounding sea, and have been sucked into 
its vortex in succession, and disappeared. 

But even this house " appointed for all living," 
has a sun-lit side. It is not an eternal prison- 
house, but a resting-place, a cemetery — xoi^^piov 

— a sleeping place. I see written upon every stone 
in the crowded church-yard — " The hour is coming 
in the which all that are in their graves shall hear 
His voice, and shall come forth, they that have 
done good unto the resurrection of life, and they 
that have done evil unto the resurrection of dam- 
nation." I can hear in the depths of its silent 
chambers the lingering echoes of the voice of Jesus 

— "I am the resurrection and the life." And, 
probably, if I have appealed to nature — its autumn, 
its sleep, and its changes — for witnesses that all 
must die, we can educe no unimpressive intima- 
tions from the same lesson-book that all will live. 
The bud peeping from the hard bark of the tree — 
the rose emerging from the dry root — the winged 



INFANT SALVATION. 77 

insect from its chrysalis are eloquent premonitions 
of death evolving life and immortality. Even decay 
itself has tints of life ; the leaves that fall in au- 
tumn turn golden as they drop — the cold bleak 
winds of winter come in music, and the icicles sus- 
pended from the eaves of our houses, reflect the 
glories of the rainbow, and the sheen of palaces 
beyond the skies, as if to teach us to read resurrec- 
tion lessons on the trophies and monuments of 
death. 

It is not a strange house. Our fathers, and mo- 
thers, and babes have pre-occupied it. Their ashes 
are peacefully reposing under its guardianship. 

" Grave, the guardian of our dust, 
Grave, the treasury of the skies, 
Every atom of its dust, 

Rests in hope again to rise." 

The Lord of glory lay in it, perfuming it by His 
presence, and giving it a consecration which neither 
presbyters nor prelates can impart. " Come, see 
where the Lord lay." On this "house appointed 
for all living,' ' the fifteenth chapter of the first epis- 
tle to the Corinthians is inscribed for an epitaph. 

Brethren, " blessed are the dead that die in the 
Lord ; they rest from their labours, and their works 
do follow them." "Absent from the body," is 
"present with the Lord." Do not cleave to this 
earth ; do not feel toward it as your rest. " Weep 
as though you wept not, rejoice as though you re- 
joiced not." Let not its glare blind you, nor its 
din stun you, nor its passions and its lusts creep 
7 * 



78 INFANT SALVATION. 

and curl around your heart, and chill it to eternal 
joys. See you not amid its palaces and halls " the 
house appointed for all living?" Hear you not 
amid the blending voices of the daughters of music, 
" I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to 
the house appointed for all living?" 

Make sure of an interest in the precious sacrifice 
and meritorious passion of Jesus. In His right- 
eousness you can meet death with joy. Through 
Him you will be more than conqueror. Death has 
no advantage, whether he come as a friend or as a 
foe ; for in the one capacity you are prepared to 
welcome him, and in the other to vanquish him. 
It is only when death comes as a stranger, that his 
stroke is dreadful. 



INFANT SALVATION. 79 



CHAPTER VII. 

There is another lesson I would impress on be- 
reaved parents, it is, " Set your affections on things 
above, not on things on the earth.' ' This exhorta- 
tion implies that the things above are known to you. 
We may love the unseen, but not the unknown : 
" Whom having not seen we love ; and in whom, 
though now we see Him not, yet believing, we re- 
joice." The things that are above are all in- 
scribed and comprehended in the sacred Scrip- 
tures. The Bible is the map of heaven — the mir- 
ror of glory — the apocalypse of the land that is 
afar off. Christ came from heaven, shaking its 
fragrance from His wings ; and the Scripture is the 
alabaster box that contains it. He came from 
above, uttering out its mysterious things, and 
leaving them stereotyped and permanent on the 
sacred page; therein we are to read and learn 
them. We can thus say, u That which we have 
seen and heard and handled;" and we seek the 
flower and perfection of these, not as unknown, 
though unseen. 

It implies also, that the things above are ours. 
We may not set our hearts on that which is not 
ours ; but these are ours. For, says St Paul, "All 
things are ours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Ce- 



80 INFANT SALVATION, 

phas, or life or death, or things present, or things 
to come; all are ours, for we are Christ's, and 
Christ is God's." From the loveliest flower that 
blooms on earth, to Him w T ho gave it its tints and 
its perfume, all are ours. Christians are the only 
true land-lords and sea-lords of the universe ; for 
all of it ministers to them. "Wherever the snow 
falls, or the rivers run ; wherever the firmament is 
hung with its drapery of clouds, or sown with 
stars ; wherever man lives or God is, all is ours in 
the second Adam; and on all of these that are 
above, we may in him set our affections. 

If we do not set our affections on things above, 
tve shall most assuredly set them upon things below. 
Empty man's heart cannot be ; its affections can- 
not stand alone ; they must cling and cluster 
around an object of support ; they must love and 
worship either God or an idol ; the choice there- 
fore is not whether you shall set your affections on 
things above or not, but whether you shall set 
them upon things above or on things below, on 
God or on an idol. "We may also observe, that the 
only way to detach the affections from the love of 
things below, is to press upon them the beauty and 
the glory of things above ; for an evil preference 
can only be dislodged by the appliance of a good 
one. The love of the one will ebb before the in- 
flux of the other. It is with this end in view that 
I proceed to delineate the excellency of " those 
things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the 
rirfit hand of God." 



INFANT SALVATION. 81 

The things above are those amid which every 
Christian must soon be placed for eternity. It is his 
Father's house — the land of promise — the native 
realm of the soul ; and surely it becomes the exiles 
and pilgrims of time, to visit on the wings of faith 
and hope those mansions of which they must soon 
be the glorified inhabitants. Let our hearts, then, 
precede us ; let our affections pre-occupy the Hea- 
venly Jerusalem : our treasure is there, our conver- 
sation is there, and the fulfilment of all our hopes 
will be realised there also. 

Things above are alone fitted and worthy to 
occupy a Christian s soul. The immaterial spirit 
cannot be replenished with the things of time. It 
was made to hold communion with the things of 
God. It is a pilgrim indeed, but a Divine pilgrim 
on earth, chosen to be a denizen in heaven. It is 
royalty in rags. The element of its enlargement 
and enjoyment is above. Its nutriment is the hid- 
den manna ; its repose is in the bosom of God. 
Husks are for swine, but living bread for it. No 
house of clay, but a house not made with hands 
must be its home. "As the heart panteth for the 
water-brooks," so doth it pant for God. 

Things above have an overpassing and transcen- 
dent excellency. The river there is the river of 
life, clear as crystal, and flows from the throne of 
God and of the Lamb. Its tree is the tree of life, 
whose fruit is for food, and whose leaves are for 
the healing of the nations. There is there no ne- 
cessity for sun or moon or stars, for the Lord God 



82 INFANT SALVATION. 

Almighty and the Lamb are the light thereof. Its 
crown is a crown of glory ; its inheritance is in- 
corruptible ; its grandeur fadeth not away ; its 
cedars are not gnawed by a worm ; its robes are 
not injured by the moth; its gold is not covered 
w T ith rust; its melodies have no intermingling 
minors ; its days, like the hours of the dial, are 
measured by sunshine ; and soon, if we are risen 
with Christ, the benedictions that rest upon our 
heads on earth shall bloom into diadems of beauty, 
and the dim lights of time shall burst into the 
emerald splendours of unutterable glory. 

The things above endure forever. They are not 
only without alloy, but without decay. Even a 
little pleasure that lasts for years, is more pre- 
cious than a greater that lasts for a day. Now 
everything above has struck upon it the super- 
scription, "For ever. ,, The sweetest joy is ever- 
lasting. It is an everlasting rest, " eternal in 
heaven ;" "it fadeth not away." Here it is by 
incessant watchfulness we live ; but there we need 
no watchfulness, for there is neither peril nor 
possibility of death. In this life the fairest flowers 
fade soonest; the more closely they are clasped, 
the more rapidly they die. The requiems of 
death follow fast on our evangels. But in heaven, 
there is a zodiac of joy, from which there shall be 
no outlet; an eternity of blessedness, of which 
there can be no suspension. God, the Fountain 
of all happiness, shall overflow all; and every 
atom of our souls shall lodge His glory, and 



INFANT SALVATION. 83 

every portion of our nature shall be inlaid with 
His holiness. 

In seeking and setting our affections on things 
above, we are certain of success. The things of 
the world are all uncertain. "The race is not 
always to the swift, nor the victory to the strong ;" 
and uncertainty, it is well know^n, paralyses efforts 
that would otherwise be strenuous; whereas the 
assurance of success imparts impulse and energy 
to every hope, aspiration, and endeavour. While 
heavenly things are ours, in virtue of our being 
Christ's, yet it is not the less true, that they are 
only to be reached by "running the race set 
before us," "fighting the good fight," "striving," 
"asking," "seeking." "He that endureth to the 
end, shall be saved." But in the midst of all this, 
we are encouraged and sustained by the experience 
of Paul — " And every man that striveth for the 
mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do 
it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we are incor- 
ruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; 
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." 

The things above become daily more and more 
important, and the things below grow daily less 
so. Every day takes from the length of life, and 
from the lustre of earthly things, as it adds to the 
weight and importance of eternal and heavenly 
realities. The rising tide is rolling in, and the 
successive waves of an eternal sea swell and break 
upon the sands on which we now stand ; and very 
soon what we call life shall be covered by the 



84 INFANT SALVATION. 

bottomless and boundless ocean of eternity. But 
the glories and felicities of heaven cannot be 
washed away. They are above the tide-mark; 
they are not touched by the mutations of time. 
On these, therefore, fix your hearts ; let these 
constitute your treasure, and in due time, the 
Eden-gate shall open on its hinge of harmony, 
and admit you to the possession of what you now 
aspire to. 

The pursuit of things above will east down upon 
you a transforming beauty. Man's heart never 
acts without being acted upon ; contact with the 
good sanctifies ; communion with the happy glad- 
dens. The vibrations of a happy spirit are felt 
throughout the whole circle of its influence. How 
much more transforming and sanctifying must it 
be, to maintain uninterrupted contact with the 
glories and joys of heaven ! There will thus flow 
into the soul the influx of the life of God ; and as 
the light of day acts on the sensitive metal of the 
photographist, tracing out the objects from which 
it is radiated, even so the effulgence that falls from 
heaven on the soul of him who sets his affections 
on its objects, will transform him from glory to 
glory, replenish his spirit with the seed of unutter- 
able joys, and, under the direction of the Holy 
Spirit, write on him the legible and indelible im- 
press of God. 

Certainly, the fuller our experience is of the 
things of this world, the less reason does there 
appear for our attachment to them. It is, at the 



INFANT SALVATION. 85 

best, a dazzling masquerade. It is full of gay 
appearances, covering and concealing grim facts. 
Its pleasures have the evanescence without the 
purity of snow-flakes ; and its sweetest associations 
are the shortest. Our ties on earth daily become 
fewer, while those in heaven multiply ; week after 
week the sky shuts down upon fewer of those w T ith 
whom we have "taken sweet counsel, " and every 
year carries with it its harvest to God. 

Seek these things in Christ. He is the com- 
pendium of them all. "In Him dwell all the 
treasures of wisdom.' ' In Him you have a right 
to them. Through Him only you may reach 
them. 

Seek them in the Holy Scriptures; these are 
the inventory that contains them. Its brilliant 
poetry ; its touching eloquence ; its powerful rea- 
soning; its simple history, are all employed to 
set forth the excellence and glory of things above. 
It is a sea, w r hose floor is covered with pearls; 
and they that dive deepest and oftenest, will bring 
up the richest and most precious. 

Seek them in the ministry of the Grospel. Every 
faithful minister is a star set on the firmament to 
reveal something of the lustre of things above. 
"Were there no inherent energy in the living voice, 
reasoning with living men ; had it no promised 
blessing; were it no ordinance of God; yet the 
variety it presents, in the mode of exhibiting the 
same truths, is calculated to freshen them to our 



86 INFANT SALVATION. 

minds, or at least, to place them at a new angle 
from which they may be more vividly seen. 

Seek them on the Sabbath. It is God's day; 
it is a short interval reclaimed from the world ; an 
Eden in the desert ; a Goshen in Egypt ; a suspen- 
sion of the wheels of time, in order that there may 
be heard the tones of an eternal jubilee, and seen, 
dimly it may be, the transalpine glories of the land 
that is afar off. 

Seek them in prayer. " Seek and ye shall find ; 
knock and it shall be opened." Prayer moves the 
arm that moves the universe. He that gives the 
things, gives the heart to pray for them. 



APPENDIX. 



[The following fragments of poetry are meant to illustrate and enforce 
some of the thoughts expressed in the previous parts of this work. Sen- 
timents that fail to strike in the ordinary formulas of prose sometimes 
tell with great and enduring emphasis in the more brilliant imagery of 
tho poet. It is for this reason, probably, that the richest consolations 
of the Spirit of God are presented to the Christian reader in the poetic 
books of the Old-Testament Scriptures. The rapt saint is almost always 
a poet; and deep and burning piety necessarily clothes itself with the 
richest resources of human speech.] 



DEATH OF AN INFANT. 

Death found strange beauty on that cherub brow, 
And dashed it out. There was a tint of rose 
On cheek and lip : — he tonched the veins with ice, 
And the rose faded. Forth from those blue eyes 
There spake a wishful tenderness, — a doubt, 
Whether to grieve or sleep, — which innocence 
Alone can wear. With ruthless haste, he bound 
The silken fringes of their curtaining lids 
For ever. There had been a murmuring sound, 
With which the babe would charm its mother's ear, 
Charming her even to tears. The spoiler set 
His seal of silence. But there beamed a smile 
So fixed and holy, from that marble brow, — « 
Death gazed and left it there : — he dared not steal 
The signet-ring of Heaven. 

Mrs. Sigourney. 

(87) 



88 APPENDIX. 



ELEGY ON A BELOVED INFANT. 

Fare thee well, thou lovely stranger ! 

Guardian angels take your charge, 
Freed at once from pain and danger, 

Happy spirit set at large. 

Life's most bitter cup just tasting, 

Short thy passage to the tomb, 
O'er the barrier swiftly hasting, 

To thine everlasting home. 

Death, his victim still pursuing, 

Ever to his purpose true, 
Soon her placid cheek bedewing, 

Robbed it of its rosy hue. 

Sealed those eyes, so lately beaming 

Innocence and joy so mild ; 
Every look so full of meaning, 

Seemed to endear the lovely child. 

In the silent tomb we leave her, 

Till the resurrection morn ; 
When her Saviour will receive her, 

And restore her lovely form. 

Then, dear Lord, we hope to meet her 

In thy happy courts above ; 
There with heavenly joy to greet her, 

And resound redeeming love ! 

Anonymous. 



APPENDIX. 



THE DYING INFANT. 

Cease here longer to detain me, 
Fondest mother, drowned in woe. 

Now thy kind caresses pain me : 
Morn advances — let me go. 

See yon orient streak appearing, 

Harbinger of endless day : 
Hark ! a voice the darkness cheering, 

Calls my new-born soul away. 

Lately launched, a trembling stranger, 
On the world's wild, boisterous flood, 

Pierced with sorrow, tossed with danger 
Gladly I return to God. 

Now my cries shall cease to grieve thee, 
Now my trembling heart finds rest ; 

Kinder arms than thine receive me, 
Softer pillow than thy breast. 

Weep not o'er those eyes that languish, 
Upward turning toward their home ; 

Raptured, they'll forget all anguish, 
While they wait to see thee come. 

There, my mother, pleasures centre ; 

Weeping, parting, care, or woe 
Ne'er our Father's house shall enter : 

Morn advances — let me go. 

As through this calm, this holy dawning, 
Silent glides my parting breath, 

To an everlasting morning, 
Gently close my eyes in death, 

8* 



90 APPENDIX. 

Blessings endless, richest blessings, 
Pour their streams upon thine heart, 

(Though no language yet possessing,) 
Breathes my spirit ere we part. 

Yet to leave thee sorrowing rends me, 
Though again His voice I hear : 

JEtise ! may every grace attend thee ; 
Rise ! and seek to meet me there. 

Cecil. 



THE DYING CHILD. 

With sudden stroke, 
The blooming infant faded and expired. 
And soon its lovely sister, doubly dear 
Now in their grief, was in like manner torn 
From their united grasp. With patience far 
Beyond her years, the little sufferer bore 
Her sharp distemper, while she could behold 
Both parents by her side ; but when from sleep, 
Transient and troubled, waking, wept aloud, 
As terrified if either were not there. 
To hear their voices singing of the love 
Of her Redeemer, in her favourite hymn, 
And praying for his mercy, oft she asked 
With eagerness, and seemed the while at ease. 
When came the final struggle, with the look 
Of a grieved child, and with its mournful cry, 
But still with something of her wonted tone 
Of confidence in danger, as for help, 
She called on them, on both alternately, 
As if by turns expecting that relief 
From each the other had grown slow to yield ; 
At which their calmness, undisturbed till then, 
Gave way to agitation, past control. 



APPENDIX. 91 

A few heart-rending moments, and her voice 

Sunk to a weak and inarticulate moan, 

Then in a whisper ended ; and, with that, 

Her features grew composed and fixed in death ! 

At sight of which, their lost tranquillity, 

At once returned. 'Twas evening ; and the lamp, 

Set near, shone full upon her placid face, 

Its snowy white illuming, while they stood 

Gazing, as on her loveliness in sleep, 

The enfeebled mother on thy father's arm 

Heavily hanging, like the slender flower 

On its firm prop when loaded down with rain 

Or morning dew. 

Wilcox. 



MATERNAL GRIEF 

Departed child ! I could forget thee once, 
Though at my bosom nursed ; this woful gain 
Thy dissolution brings, that in my soul 
Is present and perpetually abides 
A shadow, never, never to be displaced, 
By the returning substance, seen or touched, — 
Seen by mine eyes, or clasped in my embrace. 
Absence and death, how differ they ? and how 
Shall I admit that nothing can restore 
What one short sigh so easily removed ? 
Death, life, and sleep, reality and thought, 
Assist me, God, their boundaries to know, 
Or teach me calm submission to thy will. 

Wordsworth, 



THE END. 



Bjt f apfomat fatti 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 



"Dost thou believe in Christ ?" — John ix. 35. 

This is probably the most important question 
that can be addressed to a responsible and rational 
being. I wish every reader of this treatise to feel 
it so. But who is Christ, it may be asked, that we 
should believe on him, and what are his claims to 
our deference ? Let us read. 

He is the only manifestation of God — the very 
brightness of his glory, in and through whom we 
may discover God. By him every attribute of God 
is brought within the horizon of our view, and on 
each there is shed down intense and unclouded 
light. He has come so near that we can distinctly 
see him, and yet remains so holy that we can see 
God in him. 

Christ alone makes known God, not only as the 
absolute Deity, but in his relationships to us as " a 
just God and a Saviour/' A mere apocalypse of 
God is not all the fallen creature requires. It would 
meet our ignorance but not our fears. How shall 
man be justified before God ? Is this clearly re- 
vealed God a reconciled God ? He is. By Christ 

(3) 



4 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

we see God's attributes, not only in perfect har- 
mony, as they have always been, but in perfect 
harmony around the sinner — his justice just while 
it justifies the unrighteous — his holiness holy while 
it receives sinners — his truth true while it executes 
not the curses of a broken law. This is the kernel 
of the gospel — its peculiar and distinctive and ex- 
clusive revelation. In him — our head and substi- 
tute and representative, suffering and acting in our 
behalf — mercy and truth have met together, and 
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. 

By Christ alone can we be saved : — " There is 
none other name given among men whereby we 
can be saved." All hopes therefore of absolute and 
uncovenanted mercy — all expectations of acquittal 
at the judgment-seat, and acceptance before God, 
by anything we are, or have suffered, or given, or 
done, are baseless — delusive — destructive. By 7ns 
righteousness alone we are justified ; by Ms blood 
alone we are cleansed ; so much so, that not only 
no substitute, but no addition is tolerable. He 
must be alone or he will not be there at all. 

By him alone peace and happiness and joy are 
realized. Faith in Christ is not the acceptance of 
a nauseous drug, essentially necessary if we desire 
to escape from eternal death ; it is sweetness as 
well as safety. It is now rest in God, joy in the 
Holy Ghost, peace with Gocl, the hope of glory. 

To Christ, in these and other glorious offices, 
Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Priests, and Evan- 
gelists successively testified. Eve looked through 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 5 

her teal's, and, along the vista of many centuries, 
saw the true conqueror of the Serpent. Abraham 
beheld on Mount Moriah the sight of the cross, 
and predicted the appearance thereon of Christ 
our sacrifice. Moses spake of a Prophet like unto 
himself, and Jacob predicted, from his death-bed, 
that the sceptre should not depart from Judah till 
the Shiloh should come ; and Balaam beheld from 
afar a star coming out of Jacob and a sceptre out 
of Israel. Job knew that his Redeemer lived, and 
David prophesied that his name would endure for 
ever. Isaiah announced the travail and the satis- 
faction of his soul, and Micah pointed out the place 
of his birth ; and the last notes of the requiem of 
Levi, chanted by Malachi, melted into the evangels 
proclaimed by the heavenly host. 

But it may now be asked, what is it to believe in 
Christ ? It is to rest upon his sacrifice, by faith, 
for righteousness and holiness and heaven. Faith 
looks at Christ without, not at auything within — 
off self and on Christ. It draws nothing from a 
cistern within, but all from a fountain without. 
There is nothing in it of a Narcissus nature. It 
has no strength, nor life, nor nutriment of its own. 
It is a parasite grace, feeding on Christ, rejoicing 
in Christ, living in Christ. Jt is a ceaseless ab- 
sorbent, attracting and appropriating to itself what- 
ever excellency it sees in the true vine to which it 
clings, and yet assuming none of the honour or the 
^lory. n 

This faith in Christ does not terminate in Christ, 
9 a2 



6 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

but mounts through Christ to God. He " died, 
the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." "We 
"come to God through him." In short, God is 
the home to which Christ brings the prodigal — the 
haven to which the Ark brings its company — the 
rest beyond which there is no necessity nor desire 
to go — the rock, reposing in the clefts of which, 
the believer hears the storms and tumults of the 
earth as the rock in the sea regards the cawing of 
the sea-birds above it. 

Faith in Christ is just a sinner and the Saviour 
met or meeting. The want of the sinner is a Sa- 
viour, and the want of the Saviour is a sinner. A 
life-boat presupposes persons in the water — a phy- 
sician patents — and a Saviour sinners. 

Young man, dost thou believe in Christ ? Youth 
is eminently your season. The heart is softest, im- 
pulse is easiest, and impressions are the deepest. 
There are no carking cares, no corrosive anxieties. 
It is your hour. You will never be more welcome, 
never more able. Spring gives its complexion to 
summer and autumn, and youth to age. " They 
that seek me early shall find me." "Remember 
thy Creator in the days of thy youth." Life is 
precarious. Death is more certain than age. Re- 
ligion will cast a new beauty on your character, 
expanding what is contracted, elevating what is 
low, and purifying what is polluted. But should 
any turn a deaf ear to these the suggestions of true 
wisdom, to them we would address the words, 
u Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 7 

heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk 
in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine 
eyes : but know thou that for all these things God 
will bring thee into judgment/ ' 

Aged man, dost thou believe in Christ? To 
you, the question is emphatically momentous. The 
twilight envelopes you ; the shadows of departed 
years lie long and deep over many a rood around 
you. Have you never thought of this question ? 
Is j^our mind not made up upon its w T eight and im- 
portance ? Is there only guilt behind and gloom 
before you ? Is your retrospect a desert, and your 
prospect death ? Yet even to you it may be said, 
"JTow is the accepted time ;" the twelfth hour has 
not yet sounded, but the eleventh has. A short hour 
remains. Steadily and in spite of all resistance the 
hour-hand of time advances in its course, and the 
epochal hour will sound which terminates yonr op- 
portunities on earth, and the last echoes of it shall 
mingle with the tread of your footsteps at the 
judgment-seat. 

Afflicted one, dost thou believe in Christ ? The 
waters of Marab have filled your cup, and must 
have been bitter indeed if there have been no 
branch to sweeten them. Your acres have been 
sown with graves and your trees have been cy- 
presses, and your merriest melodies have been 
plaintive minors, and the brightest scenery that has 
reached y ou has been refracted through your tears. 
Perhaps j r our earthly possessions have taken w 7 ings, 
as if tired of your company, and fled. Perhaps 



8 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

those you cherished have been quenched by your 
hearth, and, with Job, you are ready to curse the 
day in which it was said, "There is a man-child 
born." But there is balm in Gilead, there is a 
Physician there. He has come to bind up the 
broken heart, to give beauty for ashes, the oil 
of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise 
for the spirit of heaviness. He says, " Come unto 
me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest." — "Oh, thou afflicted, tossed 
with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay 
thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy founda- 
tions with sapphires." — " Who is among you that 
feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his 
servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no 
light ? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and 
stay upon his God." 

Prosperous and w r ealthy man, dost thou believe 
in Christ ? You are surrounded with the comforts 
and enjoyments of life; do these lead you to 
forget God? Unsanctified riches are thorns to 
the soul. They do not profit in the day of wrath. 
They have kept many from believing in the gospel ; 
and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of 
riches have often intercepted from the heart every 
heavenly influence. You must be torn from them, 
or they will be torn from you. You are poor in- 
deed if you have no more abiding treasure, and 
miserable indeed if your heart is wholly set upon 
them ; for he that loveth silver shall not be satis- 
fied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 9 

increase. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
then } T ou will have that principle of action which 
will teach you to use the world as not abusing it, 
for the fashion of it speedily passeth away. 

Professing member of the visible church, dost 
thou believe in Christ? You are baptized; you 
approach the communion-table; you are treated 
as a true Christian ; but it is a light thing to be 
judged of man — Godsearcheth the heart. To the 
Corinthian professors Paul said, " examine your- 
selves ;" to the Hebrews he said, "take heed lest 
there be in any of you an evil heart in departing 
from the living God ;" — "all are not Israel who 
are of Israel;" — "he is not a Jew who is one out- 
wardly." Some will carry their deception to the 
judgment-day, professing "Lord, Lord, have we 
not eaten and drunken in thj r presence, and in thy 
name done many marvellous works?" and will be 
startled and surprised at the unexpected reply, 
"Depart from me, I know you not." "Search 
me, God, and know my heart, try me, and know 
my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way 
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." 

Christian, dost thou believe in Christ ? Your re- 
ply is, " I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God." — "I know in whom I have 
believed, and that he is able to keep that which I 
have committed to him against that day." You 
are born again — turned from darkness unto light — 
justified and sanctified — heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ, and fellow-citizens with the saints 
9* 



10 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

- — "a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, the lights 
of the world, and salt of the earth.' ' If I address 
such, you will feel the truth of what I now state ; 
your change is not of works, nor of merit, nor of 
man. No earthly ingenuity or imperial power, no 
royal lineage or noble rank, ever made or can make 
a Christian: no rite, or ceremony, or sacrament, 
or church, or priest, ever turned a man from dark- 
ness to light, or from the power of Satau unto God. 
Therefore, glory neither in Apollos, nor Paul, nor 
Cephas. "By grace ye are saved." "It is God 
that justifieth." He hath chosen us in Christ. We 
are his workmanship. Grace hath made us to 
differ. Let the 103rd Psalm be your song while 
you review the past, and the 23rd your hope when 
you look into the future. 

Show forth the power of the Gospel in your walk 
and coversation in the world. " If we say we have 
fellowship with Christ and walk in darkness, we 
lie. ,, While there is no life on earth absolutely 
immaculate, yet the predominating bias of a true 
Christian's walk, is holiness : "Walk worthy of the 
vocation wherewith ye are called." "Be perfect 
as your Father in heaven is perfect." "Without 
holiness no man shall see the Lord." 

Especially, let its cheering and tranquillizing 
power break forth and shine from your character at 
whatever angle it may be beheld. Jeremiah sung 
psalms in the dungeon; Luther translated the 
Bible in prison ; John beheld the brightest visions 
of the New Jerusalem in Patmos ; Bunyan, in later 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 11 

days, composed his Pilgrim in confinement, the 
prison cell acting to his mind as a camera-lucida, 
bringing within the horizon of his view pilgrims, 
each with his staff, and his face towards Zion, 
and conquerors, each throned and crowned with 
robes and palms of victory. There is a very im- 
pressive power in Christian happiness on those who 
see it from without. It is sunshine amid dripping 
clouds — a Sabbath heart in a week-day body, and 
Sabbath speech amid the dialects of Babel. It is 
brightest when all around it is blackest. When our 
natural affections cease their music, we then hear, 
sung out of the sky, unutterable melodies, which 
" ear hath not heard ;" when the world is all gloom, 
a regenerated soul treads glories out of every peb- 
ble, and sees the stars as the arteries along which 
pulsations of felicity reach him. He can say with 
Habakkuk, " Although the fig-tree shall not blos- 
som, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour 
of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and 
there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet I will re- 
joice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my 
salvation.' ' 

But no doubt there are some who must reply to 
the text in the negative. Into such hands this 
little work may fall. "With these I do not enter 
into any discussion. I merely submit a few 
thoughts which must occur to every reader. 

Very great men have believed in Christ after 
close and protracted scrutiny* This, I admit, is 



12 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

not evidence ; but it at least shows that the faith 
which Newton and Locke and Bacon and Milton 
and Sir William Jones believed, on what they 
deemed satisfactory evidence, to be from God, can- 
not be wholly destitute of credentials. And this 
may lead any sceptical young man to doubt the 
vigour of his own judgment and the correctness of 
his reasoning, rather than the inspiration of Scrip- 
ture. At the very least, this consideration will 
suggest the expediency of a long pause before there 
be uttered the loud croakings of a self-sufficient 
scepticism. 

Not a few have died publicly and awfully as 
martyrs rather than repudiate or doubt what they 
believed to be of God. In fact, there is not a pre- 
cept, a promise, or privilege, which has not been 
written in martyrs' blood and illuminated by the 
faggot flame. Meek-hearted men have shed their 
blood as festal wine, without one moment's doubt 
of reaching the shores to which the gospel points, 
and on which it lies an everlasting Aurora. This is 
not evidence of the truth of the Bible. It proves, 
however, that not only great men, but sincere men 
have embraced its sentiments and died rejoicing in 
its light. 

Christianity has also taken a very powerful hold 
of universal society. We may trace its presence 
on the brow of every century and on the face of 
every acre of the earth. The paintings of the most 
celebrated masters, Rubens, Vandyke, Titian, are 
all radiant with its light. The poetry of Milton, 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 13 

Tasso, Cowper, are vocal with its eloquence ; and 
the master-pieces of sculpture are the efforts of the 
chisel to fix and embody its sublime truths. There 
is no tongue in which its voice is not heard, no 
literature of which it is not the warp and woof. Its 
great charter — the Bible, has been unrolled in every 
land ; it is in cottages and palaces ; it sails in the 
merchant's bark, and in the nation's navy. It may 
be found in the cabinets of princes, and in the ped- 
ler's pack. Its blessing is uttered at our nuptials, 
and its requiem is breathed over our graves. It is 
the treasury which supplies names to our children, 
eloquence to our sermons, and unction to our pray- 
ers. The sun never sets on its glorious page. Such 
a book it is hard to believe to be a fable — such a 
religion is surely no fancy. A lie could not have 
spread without force, convinced the most enlight- 
ened and moulded the whole body of societ} 7 . 

It has done all this too in spite of incessant 
opposition. But its assailants, it may be demon- 
strated, have not been generally good men. Every 
weapon that learning could snatch from the 
arsenals of the past, or science discover, or wit 
invent, or sarcasm supply, have been hurled 
against it, but not a stone has fallen from its 
glorious arch. 

Infidels have died wretchedly, Christians never. 
Voltaire in his last moments cursed the day of his 
birth — Paine died blaspheming — Mirabeau calling 
for more opium — Hume amid affected jokes. 
Stephen died also, but praying for his enemies. 

B 



14 PREFATORY ADDRESS. 

"Let me die the death of the righteous." It does 
seem to me that a blind mind or a bad heart must 
be at the root of scepticism : for the longer I ex- 
amine the truths of the Gospel, the more lustrous 
with a supernal glory do they appear to me; and 
the more minutely I weigh all that has been urged 
against its doctrines, the more sublimely do they 
stand out above and beyond all changes of time in 
their own eternal relief. I cannot but hail the 
Gospel as a blessing — an inestimable blessing — a 
shower of blessings. It sets no limits to reason 
but truth — none to affection but love — none to 
desire but duty — none to hope but infinitude. It 
condemns nothing but sin, and interdicts nothing 
but poison. Its creed is truth — its service love — 
its alpha and its omega the Lamb slain. Header, 
"Dost thou believe?" Can you say, "Lord, I 
believe; help thou mine unbelief." 

And let me now, in conclusion, ask you, my 
dear friends — Have yon any personal acquaint- 
ance with Christ, as your Saviour? Can your 
solemn and sequestered moments witness at the 
judgment-seat of Christ that many a prayer has 
arisen from your hearts for mercy and forgive- 
ness ? Can your closet testify that you have there 
bowed the knee, and in deep and unspeakable ear- 
nestness pleaded for forgiveness of sin ? Have 
you ever felt your soul to be a charge too precious 
for one moment to be forgotten, and the Saviour 
too glorious for one instant to be slighted ? Have 
you ever felt what is the anxiety — the intense 



PREFATORY ADDRESS. 15 

anxiety — embodied in that question, " "What must 
I do to be saved?" Time is rapidly passing 
away; the great ocean of eternity beats upon the 
shore of time, and threatens to cover it every 
moment; "we know not what a day may bring 
forth;" the healthiest and the happiest amongst us, 
ere another sun shall rise, may stand at the judg- 
ment-seat of Christ. "Were that summons to come 
now, were that heart to give its last beat now, were 
that soul to be separated from that body, let me 
ask you — not separating myself from you, or my 
responsibility from yours — Should we be happy ? 
Should we be saved ? Would the judgment-seat 
be the vestibule of everlasting glory ? 



THE 



BAPTISMAL FONT. 



CHAPTER I. 

There is every reason to believe that the practice 
of baptism as an initiatory rite is older than the 
days of the Apostles, and the Christian era, tech- 
nically so called. Learned Rabbis, among the Jews, 
profess to trace it upward to the times of Moses. 
It would appear to have been understood, not as a 
novel, but a well-known rite by the Pharisees in 
the days of John the Baptist, when they asked him 
not, " What meanest thou by this rite ?" but, 
"Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that 
Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?" — John 
i. 25. 

Christian baptism was instituted by our blessed 
Lord after his resurrection, and prior to his ascen- 
sion, when He gave the commission, " Go ye and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost;" and from that day to this it has been 
solemnized in every section of the Christian 

(16) 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 17 

Church. The following are the chief passages of 
the New Testament which relate to baptism. 

1. It was practised by John the Baptist, as is 
proved by the following texts : " Then went out to 
John Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region 
round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in 
Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw 
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his 
baptism, he said unto them, generation of vipers, 
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to 
come ? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repent- 
ance : and think not to say within yourselves, We 
have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, 
that God is able of these stones to raise up child- 
ren unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid 
unto the root of the tree : therefore every tree 
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, 
and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with 
water unto repentance ; but he that cometh after 
me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the 
Holy Ghost, and with fire. "Whose fan is in his 
hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and 
gather his wheat into the garner; but he will 
burn up the chaif with unquenchable fire." — Matt, 
iii. 5 — 12. "John answered them, saying, I bap- 
tize with water: but there standeth one among 
you, whom ye know not." — John i. 26. "And 
John also was baptizing in ^Enon, near to Salim, 
because there was much water there ; and they 
came and were baptized." — John iii. 23. ""When 
10 b2 



18 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

John had first preached, before his coming, the 
baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel." 
— Acts xiii. 24. Then said Paul, "John verily 
baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying 
unto the people, that they should believe on him 
which should come after him, that is, on Christ 
Jesus." — Acts xix. 4. 

2. It was appointed by our Lord as a Christian 
sacrament. "And Jesus came and spake unto 
them, saying, All power is given unto me in hea- 
ven and on earth. Go ye and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you : and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
end of the world." — Matt, xxviii. 18—20. 

3. Baptism is set forth as an emblem of the 
new birth or regeneration of heart, in Ephes. v. 
26, 27 : " That he might sanctify and cleanse it 
with the washing of water by the word : that he 
might present it to himself a glorious church, not- 
having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but 
that it should be holy and without blemish." In 
Titus iii. 5, " Not by words of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved 
us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost;" and it is sought by some in 
John iii. 6 : " Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of 
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." 

4. It is also set forth as a sign of dying and 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 19 

living with Christ in Coloss ii. 12: "Buried with 
him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him 
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath 
raised him from the dead," and in Rom. vi. 3, 4: 
" Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death ? 
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into 
death : that like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so w r e also 
should walk in newness of life." 

5. Faith is necessary to the profitable enjoyment 
and realization of the benefits of it as a sign and 
seal. Acts viii. 37 : "And Philip said, If thou be- 
lievest w r ith all thine heart, thou mayest. And he 
answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is 
the Son of God." Acts xix. 4, 5: "Then said 
Paul, John verily baptized wdth the baptism of re- 
pentance, saying unto the people, that they should 

, believe on him which should come after him, that 
is, on Jesus Christ. When they heard this, they 
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." 

6. It is associated w 7 ith, but it is neither the 
cause nor the instrument of, forgiveness of sins. 
Acts ii. 38 : " Then Peter said unto them, Repent, 
and be baptized every one of you, in the name of 
Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts 
xxii. 16: "And now, why tarriest thou? Arise, 
and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling 
on the name of the Lord." 

7. There is but one baptism. Ephes. iv. 5: 



20 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

" One Lord, one faith, one baptism. " It is thus 
represented as one of the seven marks of Christian 
unity. See also 1 Cor. xii. 13: "For by one 
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether 
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or 
free, and have been all made to drink into one 
Spirit." Galat. iii. 28, 29: "There is neither 
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, 
there is neither male nor female : for ye are all 
one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then 
are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the 
promise. " 

8. It was in the apostolic age administered to 
inviduals. Acts viii. 12 : " But when they be- 
lieved Philip preaching the things concerning the 
kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, 
they were baptized, both men and women." Acts 
xiii. 38 : " Be it known unto you, therefore, men 
and brethren, that through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sins." Acts ix. 18: 
"And immediately there fell from his eyes as it 
had been scales ; and he received sight forthwith, 
and arose and was baptized." 

9. It was also admistered to whole families. 
Actsx. 47, 48; xvi. 15; and 1 Cor. i. 16. 

10. It was typified in the passage of the Israel- 
ites through the Red Sea. 1 Cor. x. 1 — 4 ; also by 
the deluge, 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21. 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

PERPETUITY OF BAPTISM. 

A party has been formed in the latter years of 
the history of the Christian Church, who deny that 
it was the mind of our Lord to perpetuate the out- 
ward and visible baptism with water in the Church. 
In opposition to this notion, we allege, and on 
grounds that seem perfectly conclusive, that, like 
the holy Eucharist, ar Lord's Supper, it was meant 
to be celebrated till Christ come the second time. 

The most satisfactory proof that our Lord de- 
signed baptism with water to be continued, is the 
ascertained practice of the Apostles. Let any one 
read the accounts given in the Acts, of the baptism 
of the Ethiopian by Philip, or of Cornelius by 
Peter, or of Lydia and her family, and it will be 
apparent that the outward rite was administered ; 
and if so, what warrant or authority had the 
Apostles for so doing, except the commission of 
their Lord ? And if they thus acted on that com- 
mission, they show in so doing that they attached 
to his words their literal and natural import. It 
seems in fact to be clearly deducible from Holy 
Scripture, that baptism was designed to be per- 
petuated in the Christian Church till the close of 
this dispensation, 
10* 



22 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

1. We have the express command of our Lord, 
"Go, and baptize all nations," and this command 
is accompanied with a promise which proves the 
perpetuity of this sacrament: "Lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." The 
Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit was not 
meant to supersede, but to be the right to baptism 
with water, for it was after this gift of the Spirit, 
that the Apostles went into all the world preaching 
the gospel, and baptizing in the name of Jesus ; 
and Cornelius was baptized expressly on the ground 
that he had received the Holy Spirit. 

2. We may infer the perpetuity of this sacra- 
ment from its nature and significance. It is the 
door of access to the visible church. As a society 
separate from the world, there must be some visible 
sign and seal of that separation. Baptism seems 
to be the appointed symbol of entrance into the 
outward profession of the Gospel, pointing to a 
higher and holier separation in heart and spirit, 
without which all external ceremonies and sacra- 
ments are only more oppressive elements of ruin — 
more awful sources of responsibility. 

3. Circumcision continued in the Jewish Church 
till Christ's first advent, and we may expect that 
baptism will continue till his second. He that in- 
stituted it can alone repeal it. Nor is there any 
ground for desiring its extinction. Unlike the rites 
of Levi, it is easy of celebration in every climate, 
and at every period of life. As simple in its ritual 
as it is sublime in its significance, it commends it- 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 23 

self on the ground of a beautiful expediency, as well 
as on that of divine obligation. 

4. It ought not to be needlessly put off by Chris- 
tian parents. It is to be feared that many in their 
recoil from the opposite extreme of superstitious 
idolatrj 7 , rush into the other of contemptuous and 
irreverent neglect. This neglect seems to argue in- 
difference to the express commandments of Christ 
— a practical undervaluing of the privileges and 
rights of their infants, and a trifling with one 
solemn sacrament which they do not exhibit in 
their views and estimate of the other. 

5. On the other hand, parents must guard against 
the superstitious feeling which prompts the belief, 
that should an infant die without baptism, that in- 
fant is lost. If the parent is guilty of culpable 
neglect, the sickness of his infant should remind 
him of his responsibilities ; but to run at midnight 
in order to get baptism for a dying infant is scarcely 
required. Its administration pre-supposes the pro- 
bability of life. It is a badge for the church mili- 
tant, not for the church triumphant ; and if the in- 
fant be obviously entering the latter, it possesses a 
surer and more glorious title than any minister can 
bestow. 



24 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 



CHAPTER III. 

NATURE AND MEANING OF BAPTISM. 

It is a public and visible token from God, that 
to faith he will and does bestow all the pledged and 
promised blessings of the covenant of grace. It 
is a declaration on the part of the baptized, that as 
his body requires to be and is cleansed by water, 
his soul needs and seeks to be renewed by the 
Spirit of God ; that as the body-purifying element, 
water, is sprinkled on its subject the outward man, 
so the soul-purifying power, the Holy Ghost, must 
be poured down upon its subject the heart, before 
it can become holy; and that as the visible am- 
bassador in the visible church ministers this visible 
act thus significant, and thereby receives the indi- 
vidual into the visible church, so is it his desire, 
and by submission to this rite, his strong faith, 
that the Lord Jesus, the unseen High Priest, of 
the inner and spiritual church, will pour down his 
Holy Spirit on his soul, and baptize it with that 
transforming power w T hich is sacramentally set 
forth to all, but really and truly received and 
realized by them alone who believe with the heart 



TIIE BAPTISMAL FONT. 25 

in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy 
Ghost. 

2. But it is not only a symbolic, but also a seal- 
ing rite. A seal attached to a deed or document 
among men is in itself as worthless as any other 
piece of sealing-wax, but as being the recognised 
and authentic seal of one of the parties, it is a last- 
ing token and assurance to all concerned, that he 
will make good all the covenants, agreements, and 
promises in the document to which it is affixed, 
on the specified conditions and limitations. Such 
is baptism on God's part. It is a seal given by 
him — a token struck with his superscription, 
whereby every promise he has given, he thus 
visibly pledges himself to bestow on all that will ; 
and therefore every time we witness baptism, we 
see applied afresh the sacred seal of the everlast- 
ing God, to confirm and strengthen our faith and 
reliance on His gracious promises. As often as 
we witness this sacrament administered, the faith 
of the true believer hears breathed through it, as 
through the trumpet of Jubilee, " I will sprinkle 
clean water upon you, and you shall be clean : 
from all your filthiness and from all your idols 
will I cleanse you ; a new heart also will I give 
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and 
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, 
and I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will 
put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in 
my statutes, and ye shall do them." 

c 



26 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

3. Our submitting to it — and in order thus to 
submit, we either receive baptism in riper years, 
or refer to, and acquiesce in our reception of it 
in infancy — is our profession of our belief in the 
truth and preciousness of God's blessed promises, 
and our personal desire to reap their fruits ; or 
the assertion of our personal and actual enjoyment 
of them. The infant in after years is called upon 
to take a retrospective view of the sacrament in 
which, and of the solemn occasion on which, he 
was entered into federal relation to God — intro- 
duced into the outward fellowship of the saints 
of God, constituted a member of the visible catho- 
lic Church, and separated like the Nazarite from 
the world, and set apart for God. He may re- 
nounce his baptism by an open and entire rejection 
of Christianity, and in this apostasy, if such it may 
be justly called, he may make up his mind to meet 
the Judge of the quick and the dead ; but until he 
thus abjure the faith of the Gospel, and reject the 
act of his parents, he is the subject of all the re- 
sponsibilities and oblightions of that dedication. 
It were the nobler and the more happy retrospect 
which would lead him to glory in the name of 
Jehovah into which he was baptized, to retake up 
with gratitude the duties devolved on him, and in 
life to illustrate and in death to hold fast that holy 
religion which reveals in heaven love, on earth 
peace, and in eternity to come the hopes of an 
inheritance among them that are sanctified. 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 27 

4. It is true the Holy Spirit alone can enable 
the baptized to make baptism in his own case any- 
thing better than a source of responsibility. But 
to them that ask, this inestimable gift is promised. 
The baptized may thus plead at the throne of the 
heavenly grace : " Lord, we see resting on us 
very heavy responsibilities. Thy name has been 
named upon us, and to thy service we have been 
dedicated in our infancy. May it please thee to 
give us thy Holy Spirit; to pour down upon us 
grace and strength from thy sanctuary. Make us 
in heart thine. Eegenerate, renew, and sanctify 
us wholly. May we be inw 7 ardly and outwardly 
thine." 



28 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BAPTISM NOT NECESSARILY REGENERATION. 

1. "While we do not depreciate baptism into a 
vapid ceremonial on the one hand, we must guard 
against raising it to the place of the Spirit of God 
on the other. This last is, we fear, the dilating 
heresy of the age. Transubstantiation puts the 
eucharistic bread and wine in the room of Christ, 
and Baptismal Regeneration, or a change of heart 
necessarily associated with this sacrament, places 
the water in the font in the room of the Holy Spirit. 
To attribute essentially quickening attributes to 
either sacrament is simply idolatry. It is also to 
forget or overlook the extent of man's ruin. By 
nature the soul is not sick or in a swoon ; for, if 
this be all, human restoratives and priestty rites 
may restore it: but it is dead, absolutely and 
utterly dead ; and therefore nothing but Omnipo- 
tence in its sovereignty can vivify and raise it. 

2. That baptism is not regeneration will be ap- 
parent if we consider who is declared in Scripture 
to be the author of regeneration. In John i. 12, 
13, we thus read: "But as man}' as received him, 
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, 
even to them that believe on his name, who were 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 29 

born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
of the will of man, but of God." 

If regeneration take place in baptism, then the 
"will of man" does determine the birth of the 
sons of God. The father may fix the hour and 
the place of the regeneration of his infant, and the 
unbaptized adult may, by the "will of man" and 
the "will of flesh," resolve to be born again at any 
time he prefers. 

3. But is it not written in the same gospel, (John 
iii. 5,) " Except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ?" 

Is it probable that this passage refers to Chris- 
tian baptism, seeing it was not yet instituted and 
could not be understood by Nicodemus ? If it be 
said it refers to the baptism of John the Baptist, 
we reply > it cannot mean that John's baptism was 
regeneration; for it was so imperfect that those 
who had received it were baptized again in the 
name of Jesus, as it is recorded in Acts xix. 8 — 5 : 
"And he said unto them, unto what then were ye 
baptized ? And they said, Unto John's baptism. 
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the 
baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that 
they should believe on him which should come 
after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. "When they 
heard this, they were baptized in the name of the 
Lord Jesus." 

But should we grant that it refers to Christian 
baptism, it does not prove that the water in the 
font quickens the dead. If the words had been, 
11 c2 



30 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

" Except ye be born of water, ye cannot enter into 
the kingdom of heaven/' the doctrine we oppose 
might have been grafted on it. But the words are 
"born of water," that is the minister's part, "and 
of the Spirit," that is his Master's; the one is 
introduction into the outward and visible church 
by a visible rite, and the other is incorporation 
into the inner and spiritual church, which is made 
up exclusively of the sons of God, by the Holy 
Spirit, w T hen and where He pleases ; for " the wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
sound thereof, but canst not tell w r hence it cometh 
or whither it goeth : so is every man that is born 
of the Spirit." 

In the contiguous texts "water" is left out, and 
"born of God" and "born of the Spirit," are the 
expressions employed by our Lord. The process 
also by which the life of God is imparted to the 
soul is expressly declared to be faith in the Son of 
God. As the wounded Israelite (v. 14) looked at 
the brazen serpent and derived health to his body, 
so the sinner looks by faith to the uplifted Saviour 
and from him receives eternal life. 

But it seems to me that the conjunction xai 
(and) is here used in its not uncommon sense of 
"even," and if so, "water" is used as the sign or 
symbol of the Holy Spirit, — the standing metaphor 
in many parts of Scripture for the Spirit, and plainly 
in John vii. 37 : " In the last day, that great day 
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any 
man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 31 

that believetli on me, as the Scriptures hath said, 
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 
But this spake he of the Spirit," &c. 

4. It will also appear that baptism is not the 
new birth, if we consult Scripture concerning the 
instrumentality by which this great change is de- 
clared invariably to be accomplished. It is by 
"the word." John xvii. 17: "Sanctify them* 
through thy truth, thy word is truth." James i. 
18 : " Of his own will begat he us with the word 
of truth." 1 Peter i. 22, 23: "Seeing ye have 
purified your souls in obeying the truth. Being, 
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrup- 
tible, by the word of God ivhich liveth and abideth 
for ever" 1 Cor. iv. 15 ; "In Christ Jesus have I 
begotten you through the gospel" If this last 
statement of the Apostle be compared with his 
language in 1 Cor. i. 14, "'I thank God that I 
baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius," we 
shall see that Paul did not regard baptism as that 
life-imparting ordinance which some believe it to 
be in the present age. Ephesians v. 26 : " That 
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
of water by the word" Titus iii. 4 — 6: "But 
after the kindness and love of God our Saviour to- 
ward man appeared, not by works of righteousness 
which we have done, but according to his mercy he 
saved us, by the washing of regeneration and re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost, which (Holy Ghost) he 
poured out richly on us through Jesus Christ" 

It may be that in these two last passages bap- 



32 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

tism is referred to — and its importance and obliga- 
tion, a3 the initiatory sacrament of the church, it 
is neithet right nor necessary to depreciate — but 
in both, the language employed is so guarded, that, 
in the first, "the word" is seen to be the instru- 
mentality, and in the second, the Holy Ghost is 
declared to be the author, and Jesus Christ the 
medium, or mediatorial channel of both. 

5. We may also show that baptism is not the new 
birth, by reviewing the moral effects of that birth 
as they are set forth in the Scriptures. Those w T ho 
have received it "are alive to God," "quickened," 
" a new creature," " children of God," having "the 
spirit of adoption, saying, Abba, Father." "Whoso 
is born of God doth not commit sin." " Every one 
that loveth is born of God." "Whosoever is born 
of God overcometh the world." " Obedient child- 
ren." "Peacemakers." — These are not the charac- 
teristics of every baptized man. It is, therefore, 
matter of fact, and of daily observation, that bap- 
tism is not this transformation of nature — this new 
and heavenly birth — the harbinger or prolific parent 
of these holy and heavenly fruits which adorn the 
character of saints, and shed beauty and fragrance 
on the world in which they are pilgrims. 

6. The new birth, or regeneration, is also de- 
scribed in Scripture as an indestructible character 
destined to issue and unfold itself in heaven. The 
wheat and the tares grow together in the one field 
of the visible church, till the time of the harvest — - 
there is no transformation of the one into the other. 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 33 

" Depart from me," — not "I knew you once, but 
now have ceased to know you," but — "I never 
knew you." " They went out from us, but they 
were not of us ; for if they had been of us, they 
would have continued with us." " They that are 
born of God overcome the world." "Being confi- 
dent of this, that he who hath begun a good work 
in you will perfect it to the day of Jesus Christ." 
" All that the Father giveth me, shall come unto 
me." " This is the Father's will, that of all he has 
given me I should lose none. " According as he 
hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of 
the world that we should be holy." — Ephes. i. 4, 
" Begotten again into a lively hope to an inherit- 
ance incorruptible — reserved in heaven for you, 
who are kept by the power of God, through faith 
unto salvation." — 1 Pet. i. 3. All these very fami- 
liar texts clearly demonstrate that regeneration is 
not a temporary and mutable character, but a new 
and immutable nature, destined to endless progres- 
sion, and never reverting or relapsing into the dark 
and corrupt state out of which it emanated. The 
shining light, brightening from grey dawn to noon 
day — the acorn, rising and spreading into the 
gigantic oak — the infant, growing up to manhood, 
are its types, and hence to speak, baptism being 
all this, is to contradict facts, and to dispute the 
evidence of the senses. 

7. In those cases of (necessarily) adult baptism 
recorded in the Acts, regeneration is represented in 
every instance as preceding baptism, and in such 
11* 



34 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

cases be what baptism may, it cannot be the instru- 
ment of regeneration. In the case of the Ethiopian 
eunuch, we find Philip stating the pre-requisite of 
baptism in the case of adults, " If thou believest 
with all thine heart thou mayest be baptized." — 
Acts viii. 37. " Can any man, " said Peter, "forbid 
water that these should be baptized which have 
received the Holy Ghost as well as we ?" — Acts x. 
47. The jailer of Philippi first "believed on Christ 
with all his house," and was "baptized, he and his 
straightway." In these instances baptism was a 
seal of existing grace, not a producer of a new 
grace. 

8. The fruits of regeneration are not found in 
all the baptized. But if this sacrament makes 
" the thorn the fir-tree, and the brier the myrtle- 
tree," the fruit will show it. Th^ ;£?cd tree cannot 
bear bad fruit. In the second chfu o } of Ephesians 
we have the contrast. The unrest ~ ate are therein 
described as "walking according +3 the course of 
this world;" "having their cod ^rsation in the 
lusts of the flesh;" "fulfilling \% desires of the 
flesh;" "children of wrath;" " ad in trespasses 
and sins ;" " aliens, strangers, ha ig no hope, and 
without God in the world." But clo not many or 
all of these dark characteristics appear among the 
baptized ? The features of the regenerate, on the 
other hand, are represented as "quickened with 
Christ;" " God's workmanship created unto good 
works;" "saved by grace;" "made nigh by the 
blood of Christ;" "fellow-citizens with the saints;" 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 35 

"a holy temple ;" "a habitation of God;" "having 
access through Christ by one Spirit to the Father." 
Are these the features of all or of a majority of the 
baptized ? Are all the baptized the sons of God 
by adoption? Have all such the spirit which 
prompts the utterance "Abba, Father?" A " Simon 
Magus," is one ready and conclusive reply. 

9. The teaching which identifies regeneration of 
heart with baptism is fraught, it is to be feared, 
with grave and ruinous evils. It makes a work, not 
faith, the instrument of justification — it puts a 
material element, w T ater, in the room of the Holy 
Spirit, just as transubstantiation puts bread in the 
room of Christ ; and in practice it fosters the most 
deadly delusions. How many may have gone to 
the eternal state relying on an outward rite as their 
\j£F* j °t tms j -over their fatal delusion at the 
judgment-seat, it is not for me to state. But be- 
yond all question, there is no teaching more calcu- 
lated in the present day to welcome and encourage 
the principles and the progress of Romanism than 
that which places a sacrament, how r ever precious in 
its own place, in the room of the Holy Spirit of 
God. I look upon this as heresy, as bearing the 
same relation to baptism which transubstantiation 
bears to the Lord's Supper, and, perhaps, the more 
perilous of the two. 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 



CHAPTER V. 

SUBJECTS OF BAPTISM. 

1. All are agreed that baptism is to be adminis- 
tered to believing adults, the previous baptism of 
the Holy Ghost not superseding, but warranting 
and demanding the baptism of the church with 
water. To urge the possession of the first as 
rendering unnecessary the second, is totally alien 
to the spirit, usages, and prescriptions of a faith, 
which insists indeed on the internal grace as the 
chief thing, but at the same time requires its, -nut- 
ward exhibition as its natural and uitm? expres- 
sion. The administration of this sacrament with 
water, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost, is so clearly enjoined, and was 
so incontrovertibly practised by the Apostles, that 
it seems needless to recapitulate the evidence here. 

2. A dispute, however, of a different description, 
has agitated the Christian Church. One party 
allege that infants are neither the scriptural nor 
capable subjects of baptism, and that the adminis- 
tration of the holy rite to such, is not only invalid, 
but must be reiterated. This is a new opinion. 
It is not held by very many. But it would be 
uncandid to withhold the fact, that truly pious and 
spiritual men, such as Fuller, and Carey, and Hall, 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 37 

and Carson, have not only conscientiously held it, 
but defended it acutely and plausibly. 

3. It is surely a presumption against their views, 
and a very strong one too, that from the very be- 
ginning of God's intercourse with his church on 
earth, he has included, almost invariably, the chil- 
dren m his covenants with the parents. Thus, in 
addressing Noah, God said, " Come thou and all 
thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righte- 
ous/' This language is very remarkable. "Thee 
have I seen righteous,'' therefore, come, not only 
"thou." but "all thy house." The privilege in- 
herited by the father in consequence of his personal 
piety, is made the ground of comprehending in 
the enjoyment of these privileges all his house. 
Does it not seem, to say the least, to be in the 
spirit of this dealing, to admit the children into 
the visible church on the ground that their parents 
have been previously admitted and now profess to 
belong to it. 

In Genesis xvii. 7, God says to Abraham, "I 
will establish my covenant with thee and thy seed 
after thee, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after 
thee — every man-child among you shall be circum- 
cised." That this circumcision occupied in the 
Levitical dispensation, the place of baptism under 
the Evangelical, must be apparent from its being 
the outward and visible sign of the same inward 
and spiritual grace, as it is stated in Deut. xxx. 6 : 
"The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, 
and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy 

D 



38 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

God with all thine heart." And in Galatians iii. 
27—29, there is most satisfactory proof, from the 
extension of the privilege to females as well as 
males, that the Apostle views baptism as evangeli- 
cal circumcision, just as circumcision was Levitical 
baptism. "For as many of you as have been 
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Tkere is 
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor 
free, there is neither male nor female : for ye are 
all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's then 
are ye Abraham s seed, and heirs according to the 
promise.'' 

4. The language of the New Testament seems 
also very explicit. Acts ii. 38 : " Then Peter said 
unto them, Arise and be baptized every one of you 
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
For the promise is unto you and your children, and 
to all that are afar off." 

Matthew xvii. 5: " Suffer little children to come 
unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." 

1 Cor. vii. 14: "The unbelieving husband is 
sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbe- 
lieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband : 
else were your children unclean, but now are they 
holy;" that is, the children are scripturally "set 
apart or separated," which is the strict meaning of 
a/ioi, especially as contrasted with axadapTa. There 
is also the Saviour's commission in Matt, xxviii. 19 : 
" Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 89 

them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe 
all things, whatsoever I have commanded you." 
On this text it is important to observe that there 
are two distinct words, each translated teach in 
our version, but one totally distinct from the other 
in the original language. The first clause ought 
to be rendered, " Go and disciple all nations, bap- 
tizing/ ' &c, or, " Go and make disciples of all 
nations. ,, How? First, "by baptizing them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost,' ' and, secondly and subsequently, 
by " teaching them to observe all things, whatso- 
ever I have commanded you." Baptism is the 
initiatory rite, and teaching the duty that flows 
from it, and is one of the chief obligations arising 
out of this sacrament. 

That infants as well as adults were compre- 
hended in " all nations," every one of the Apostles, 
originally Jews, would doubtless believe — reason- 
ing, naturally enough, if our infants were admitted 
by an outward rite to the privileges of the gospel, 
in its typical and less fully developed dispensation, 
they will surely, and a fortiori, be admitted into 
the same privileges, only greater, more numerous 
and lustrous, under the perfect light of the New 
Testament. The rite is changed, the privilege 
remains — the ceremony is altered, but the sub- 
stance continues. Circumcision introduced into 
the Jewish Church, and baptism introduces into 
the Christian, while in this alteration, the ampler 



40 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

range of the Christian dispensation is shown, in 
that the admission is no longer restricted primarily 
to Jews and males, but extended to Gentiles and 
females, as indicated in Galatians iii. 27 : " For as 
many of you as have been baptized into Christ 
have put on Christ." So natural is this, that they 
who deny infants their accustomed privileges, the 
privileges of 2000 years before the birth of Jesus, 
not they who accord them, are bound to prove 
their positions. 

The Christian is not a totally different dispensa- 
tion from the Jewish. It is the full development 
of it — the flower and perfection of it. "The 
righteousness of faith" is the same now as it was 
4000 years ago, and the formula only by which it 
was sealed and signified in the days of Abraham 
is changed. In Colossians ii. 11, the Apostle 
plainly intimates their identity. "In whom also 
ye are circumcised with the circumcision made 
without hands, in putting of the body of the sins 
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ : buried 
with him in baptism." Circumcision proclaimed 
the depravity of our natures — it bound the parent 
to teach the child — it marked off the children of 
the visible church from those w^ho w r ere aliens, 
and it taught its subjects to look up to Him who 
instituted it for grace and glory. The sign or 
seal of all this was struck on the infants of the 
people of God for 2000 years. Where, we ask, 
is the repeal of this? "When, and by whom were 
children proscribed and excommunicated? By 



TIIE BAPTISMAL FONT. 41 

whom were babes cast out of the temple? To 
answer, "Adults were baptized by the apostles/' 
looks like evasion. These are baptized now, if not 
previously baptized in infancy. What we allege is, 
there is no arrest intimated in the New Testament 
on the flow of the privileges enjoyed in the Old. 
They are extended in every case, and contracted 
in none. The denial of baptism to infants seems 
therefore sectarian — a restriction, not an extension 
of gracious privileges. 

5. In the New Testament there are several in- 
stances of wiiole families being baptized ; and in 
thirteen families, the number so baptized, there 
must surely have been some infants. Lydia and 
her family — the gaoler of Philippi and his family — 
Cornelius and his family — Crispus and his family 
— Stephanus and his family — Aristobulus, Narcis- 
sus, Onesiphorus, Priscilla, Nymphas, Philemon, 
with their families were all baptized ; the ground 
of baptism of the family being laid down as the 
faith of the parent ; and thus it must be obvious, 
when we consider, in connexion with it, the law 
and usage of circumcision, that children must have 
been admitted to Christian baptism. The Greek 
word generally translated family, means distinc- 
tively children, and not servants or domestics only. 
We assert that the apostolic usage was the baptism 
of the children, immediately after the baptism of 
the parents ; and in proof of this we have quoted 
twelve New Testament instances which directly 
involve infant baptism. The Baptists do not ec- 
12 d2 



42 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

clesiastically recognise the family in the minstra- 
tion of this sacrament. They look to the individual 
only ; and in so far they depart from apostolic pre- 
cedent and practice. In 1 Cor. x. 2, also, we read 
that the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the 
cloud and in the sea. In that nation at least one 
third were children. 

6. If we refer to the ecclesiastical history, and 
the writings of the earlier fathers, we shall find in 
them indubitable evidence that children were, with- 
out controversy, and without opposition from any 
quarter, admitted to Christian baptism. Justin 
Martyr, who lived about the middle of the second 

century, xoci <7roXXo/ Wvsg xai tfoKhai sgrjxovrouvrai xai s/3($o/xy]- 
xovTouvrai oi £x rfaiSuv c/xad'/prsud^d'av <rw X^iflVw d^opoi &a/xe- 
voutfi. Apol. p. 48. 

" Many, male and female, with us now sixt} 7 and 
seventy years old, who were made disciples to Christ 
from childhood, and who remain celibates.'' 

The original word fjua^rsusiv, to make disciples, 
is that employed by our Lord in his commission, 
" Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing," 
fee. 

The work in which Justin quotes this fact was 
written about the year 150. These persons then, 
who were at that date seventy years of age, must 
have been baptized about a. d. 80, and therefore 
while one or more of the Apostles were living. 
This is a very plain testimony. Irenjeus, who was 
for a while the contemporary of Justin, using the 
word regeneration for baptism, according to the 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 43 

practice of the post-apostolic fathers, says, " Omne 
enim venit per semetipsum salvare; omnes, inquani 
qui per eum renascuntur in Deum ; infantes et par- 
vulos et pueros et juvenes et seniores." Iren. adv. 
Haer. lib. ii. c. 39. " Our Lord came to save all 
through himself; all, I say, who through him are 
born again unto God, infants and children, and 
boys and youths." Tertullian, who was contem- 
porary with Irenseus, clearly attests the fact of 
infant baptism ; while he contends for deferring it, 
not on the ground that infants w r ere not then bap- 
tized, but, on very erroneous ground, we allow, that 
it was less responsibility to those who were their 
sponsors. He says, "Itaque pro cujusque personae 
conditione ac dispositione etiam etate cunctatio 
baptismi utilior prsecipue tamen circa parvulos. 
Quid enim necesse est sponsores etiam periculo 
ingeri qui et ipsi per mortalitatem destituere pro- 
missiones suas possunt et proventu mate indolis 
falli."— Tertul. de Baptismo, Oper. p. 710. " Ac- 
cording to the condition and the situation, and also 
the age of each person, the deferring of baptism is 
more useful ; but this remark particularly applies 
to the case of infants. For why need any risk be 
incurred by their sponsors, who themselves may 
not be able, by reason of death, to fulfil their bap- 
tismal promises, or who may be deceived by the 
development of a bad disposition in their charge ?" 
Cyprian, who lived about fifty years after Ter- 
tullian, gives an equally express testimony to this 
practice, " Ceterum si homines impedire aliquod, 



44 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

ad eonsecutionem gratis possit ; magis adultos et 
provectos et majores natu possunt impedire peccata 
graviora. Porro autem si etiam gravissimis delic- 
toribus et in Deum multum ante peecantibus, cum 
postea crediderint remissa peccatorum datur et 
baptismo atque a gratia, nemo prohibetur quanto 
majus prohiberi non debet infans qui reeens natus 
nihil peccavit nisi, quod secundum Adam carnaliter 
natus contagium mortis antique prima nativitate 
contraxit." — Cyp. vol. ii. Epist. 64. "But if any- 
thing might impede men in the attainment of grace, 
surely the more grievous sins might impede adults 
and more aged persons. Moreover, if the remis- 
sion of sins is granted even to the greatest trans- 
gressors on their subsequent belief, and no one 
is prohibited from baptism and from grace, how 
much less ought an infant to be prohibited, who, re- 
cently born, has not sinned, except in so far as, 
being naturally descended from Adam, he has con- 
tracted the contagion of ancient death in his first 
birth?" 

In a council held at Carthage in the year 256, 
Fidus, one of sixty-six ministers who were present, 
asked the question, whether infants might be bap- 
tized before they were eight days old; and all 
decided that there was no restriction as to the 
number of days, obviously, however, taking it for 
granted that infant baptism was the usage and not 
an innovation. 

Ambrose, in his lecture on Luke i. 17, says: 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 45 

"In the Apostles' time infants were baptized, as 
well as in our own." 

Chrysostom frequently refers to infant baptism, 
as the general practice. But let any one read the 
sixth book of Augustine against Pelagius, and he 
will see that Augustine argues against Pelagius, 
and in proof of original sin, from the fact — which 
his adversaries did not dispute or deny — that in- 
fants were in his day and had been all along bap- 
tized. In chap. iii. sec. 7, he says: "Frustra om- 
nino contenditis nee ab originali peccato parvulos 
regeneratione mundari. Non hoc ostendit qui dixit 
quicunque baptizati sumus in Christo, in morte 
ejus baptizati sumus. ... Si ergo in Christo parvuli 
baptizantur, in morte ejus baptizantur." 

In the same book, chap. v. sect. 12, he says : 
" Hie itaque agnoscamus et parvulos quia et ipsos 
baptizatos non negamus in Christo.' ' 

In section 13 he thus argues with his Pelagian 
opponents : " Aut ergo agnoscite parvulos in bap- 
tismate mortuos esse peccato et fatemini habuisse 
cui morerentur originale peccatum aut operte dicite 
non eos in morte Christi baptizatos cum baptiza- 
rentur in Christo et Apostolum mendacii redarguite 
dicentem quicunque baptizati sumus in Christo 
Jesu in morte illius baptizati sumus." — " In vain 
do ye contend that children are not cleansed from 
original sin by regeneration. He did not show 
this who said, ' As many as have been baptized in 
Christ have been baptized in (or into) his death.' 
If therefore little children are baptized they are 
12 * 



46 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

baptized in his death." " Here also let us acknow- 
ledge even little children, because we do not deny 
that they are baptized in Christ." "Either there- 
fore admit that little children in baptism are dead 
in sin, and confess that they had original sin, by 
which they might die ; or openly confess that they 
are not baptized into the death of Christ when they 
are baptized into Christ; and thus prove the 
Apostle guilty of falsehood when he says, 'As 
many of us as have been baptized into Christ Jesus 
have been baptized into his death.' " 

It is evident that throughout the whole of his 
sixth book, Augustine, justly or unjustty, proves 
the existence of original sin, from the fact that in 
his time and since the days of the Apostles, infants 
were baptized; and his opponents did not attempt 
to prove infant baptism a novelty, as they would 
have done if they had been able. On all sides it 
seems to have been admitted, that infant baptism 
was a scriptural and apostolical usage. This is no 
slight evidence I humbly think. Jerome reasoned 
on the very same premises as Augustine ; and in 
fact, till the commencement of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, infant baptism was all but the universal and 
uninterrupted usage of the Christian Church. 

7. Infant baptism has been, and is now, prac- 
tised by all the branches of the Eastern or Greek 
Church, including Russia, Moldavia, Wallachia, 
Georgia, Egypt, Nubia, &c. 

The Romish or Western Church, it is scarcely 
necessary to add, has invariably practised infant 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 47 

baptism. That absurd and superstitious rites have 
been grafted on it is perfectly true ; but the radical 
characteristics remain, and some of those very rites 
prove the fundamental usage of infant baptism to 
have been the early practice. 

It is also worthy of remark, that the Sabean 
Churches, who profess to be the followers and 
strict imitators of John the Baptist, practise infant 
baptism. 

The Jews also, prior to the advent of Jesus, bap- 
tized the infants of Gentile proselytes, according to 
the Talmuda, Mishna, and Gemara, as shown by 
Lightfoot and Maimonides. 

In fact, it seems to be irresistibly established, 
that infant baptism is scriptural in principle and 
apostolic in practice ; and no opposite arguments I 
have yet read do more than prove that adults were 
baptized in the days of the Apostles, which of 
course we allow. 

8. It may not now, perhaps, be unimportant to 
refer to a few of the more popular objections to in- 
fant baptism. 

It has been alleged, that infants, having neither 
faith nor repentance, may not, therefore, receive 
that sacrament which is the seal of these. "We 
are told in Scripture, we reply, that circumcision 
was to Abraham " a seal of the righteousness of 
faith ;" but his children also received the seal 
while incapable of exercising faith. Thus a di- 
vine command expressly refutes or rather obviates 
this objection. It might also be consistently ar- 



48 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

guecl by such objectors, "He that believeth not 
shall be damned ;" therefore, children, being in- 
capable of faith, shall be eternally lost ; or, " He 
that will not work neither should he eat;" and 
therefore children should be starved. The op- 
ponents of infant baptism have true grace but bad 
logic, for their reasoning would sentence their off- 
spring to starve in time and perish in eternity. 
Their better feelings, however, cut short their 
faulty reasoning. But why is there not an express 
command to baptize infants ? "We reply : It is all 
the other way ; why is there not an express prohibi- 
tion ? It was the usage of the Old Testament, to give 
" the seal of the righteousness of faith " to infants ; 
why, if this principle was to be repealed, is not this 
repeal expressed ? There is no command to admit 
females to the Lord's Supper; there were none 
present at the institution of it ; and the Apostle's 
words are, "Let a man examine himself." But no 
party dreams of excluding females. The practice 
of admitting them necessarily grows out of the 
principles of the Christian faith. There is, how- 
ever, less evidence in the New Testament for the 
admission of females to the Lord's table, than 
there is for the admission of infants to the bap- 
tismal font. 

But it is said our Lord was baptized at thirty 
years of age, and to this precedent we ought to 
adhere. It must be remembered that at that time 
Christian baptism was not instituted, and that in 
the case of converts to the gospel who had received 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 49 

John's baptism, baptism in the name of Jesus was 
subsequently administered or repeated. In the 
next place, the baptism of Jesus was totally dif- 
ferent from ours. It neither signified nor sealed 
the same thing. It was merely " fulfilling all 
righteousness," by presenting himself the antitype 
of the priesthood, each member of which was 
washed or baptized on assuming the priestly func- 
tions: see Exod. xxix. 4: "And Aaron and his 
sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the taber- 
nacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them 
with water." Exod. xl. 12 : "And thou shalt bring 
Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle 
of the congregation, and shalt wash them with 
water." Levit. vih. 6 : "And Moses brought Aaron 
and his sons and washed them with water. These 
ceremonies Christ exhausted and dismissed. 

Infant baptism, then, I humbly submit, is alike 
scriptural in principle, apostolical in usage, and is 
fraught with many precious advantages, some of 
which we shall illustrate by and by. 



50 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MODE OF ADMINISTERING BAPTISM. 

This is really a dispute scarcely worthy of ex- 
tended notice. It ranks precisely with such ques- 
tions as whether we should sit or kneel at the 
Lord's Table — whether the bread should be 
leavened or unleavened — whether a spoonful or 
a glassful of wine should be drunk. The Chris- 
tian liberality is on the side of them who contend 
for the use of water in the name of the Holy 
Trinity, and recognise the sacrament as valid, 
whether plunging over head or sprinkling be the 
mode of administration. 

Ba*r<n£w is the Greek word employed in the New 
Testament, and the Hebrew verb corresponding to 
it is HDty, which last signifies to set up as a pillar. 
In ancient times pillars were set up or consecrated 
by being sprinkled or poured upon ; and this idea 
or association would seem to have been in the mind 
of Ananias when he said, Acts xii. 16, — "Arise and 
be baptized.'' 

2. In profane writers Bccrr™ and Ba^r^w are un- 
questionably used, both in the sense of dipping and 
pouring or sprinkling. In heathen writers we read 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 51 

of "baptizing the grass with dew," "baptizing a 
garment with needlework," " baptizing a wall with 
arrows," "baptizing the head with perfume." 

In the Septuagint, which is the Greek employed 
in the New Testament, we read in Dan. iv. 30, or 
according to the authorised version, Dan. iv. 33, 

xa.) ccro <ryj£ Spotfov tou ovpavov to tfw/xa aurou s/3a<p*j, "his 

body was baptized or sprinkled with the dew of 
heaven." In the New Testament /3a<7r<n£w is used 
in the sense of " pouring on," or " sprinkling." In 
Matt. iii. 2, John foretold that Jesus would bap- 
tize with the Holy Ghost, and Peter expressly re- 
cognizes the fulfilment of the promise in Acts xi. 
15, when the "Holy Ghost fell on them." At 
Mark vii. 4, it is stated that the Pharisees observe 
fiavridixovg tfor^pi'wv, xai, |s(JVwv xai p(ocXx/wv, xXivwv, " the 
baptisms or washings of cups and pots, brazen 
vessels and tables." That jScwrTifffi^, means sprin- 
kling here will be apparent, if we refer to the Levi- 
tical rite to which it alludes. In Numb. xix. 18, it 
is thus enjoined: "And a clean person shall take 
hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon 
the tent, and upon all the vessels." 

3. As purification is the idea signified in the 
baptismal application of water, the ceremonial law 
almost invariably prescribes its employment in the 
form of sprinkling. Our blessed Lord also pro- 
nounced pouring water on the feet of his disciples, 
for he did not even plunge their feet into water, as 
symbolically and sufficiently expressive of the 



52 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

cleansing of the whole person: and with these 
precedents we are, we think, perfectly justified in 
assuming pouring and sprinkling, to be not only 
a convenient, but a scriptural usage ; and if ex- 
pressiveness be appealed to as the test, pouring 
or sprinkling on the infant or adult is most fully 
emblematic and illustrative of the spiritual bap- 
tism or pouring out or descent of the Holy 
Spirit." But this part of the controversy is com- 
paratively insignificant, and therefore it is prefer- 
able to let it rest. 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 53 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SPONSORS. 

These, in the judgment of the Church of Scot- 
land, are the parents — the most natural — the most 
deeply interested ; and their influence, too, for good 
or for evil, is most powerful, most present and con- 
tinuously sustained. 

As it is the great design of this short treatise to 
present the subject in a spiritual and practical view, 
all controversy on this part of the subject is de- 
signedly waived. Great practical duties we regard 
as paramount here. In order to place the respon- 
sibilities of parent-sponsors in the clearest light, 
they are here personally addressed. 

1. By presenting your children for baptism, you 
profess your belief that your infant has been born 
in sin — has inherited the guilt of Adam, and is by 
nature a stranger to the covenant of grace ; you 
profess to believe, that as the body needs to be 
cleansed by w T ater, your babe's soul requires the 
cleansing of the blood of Jesus and the washing 
of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost. 

2. You thereby solemnly profess your faith in 
all the doctrines, and your hope in all the promises 
of Scripture, and that these are for you and your 

13 e 2 



54 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

children also. You declare the gospel to have been 
very precious to your own soul, and you now de- 
sire and pray, in this act of consecration, that the 
blessings signified and sealed in baptism may be- 
come the inheritance of your offspring now and for 
ever. 

3. You hereby solemnly devote and dedicate 
your infant to God ; professing to believe that his 
service is the greatest freedom; and devotedness 
to him the highest honour. You place your babe 
at the feet of Jesus to be his pupil — wishing it to 
be embraced in the Father's love — washed in the 
Saviour's blood — and renewed by the Holy Ghost. 
You give it to Christ as his property, and he lends 
it to you as your trust. 

4. You desire to have your child introduced into 
the visible church, and made a member thereof by 
the sacrament of baptism. Within the visible 
church, mixed as it is, you believe the offers of the 
gospel, the means of grace, and the special pre- 
sence of Christ, ordinarily are ; and within this en- 
closure you desire your little one to be planted and 
to prosper as "an olive plant." 

5. You hereby solemnly and deliberately pledge 
yourselves as sponsors and guardians to bring up 
your infant in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord. You are trustees, and this babe is com- 
mitted to you ; you are tutors, and this little one 
you undertake to educate for eternity. You have 
it a consecrated thing, whom it w r ould be sacrilege 
to initiate in the orgies, or to train for the drudgery 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 55 

of Mammon and the world. The grandmother and 
mother of Timothy will be your models. Eli's con- 
duct, in not rebuking his sons when they made 
themselves vile, you will alike abhor and avoid. 
"Take this child and nurse it forme," you hold 
as substantially the charge which Christ addresses 
to you through his minister. 

6. You hereby offer up your fervent prayers to 
the Great Head of the Church, that He would be 
pleased to receive into the spiritual and true church, 
which is the body of Christ, this infant you now 
have introduced into the outward church. You 
have asked the minister to baptize with water, and 
contemporaneously with this, you implore the Lord 
Jesus to baptize with the Holy Ghost. You have 
used divine means, and you look up for a divine 
blessing. Your appearance with your infant at 
baptism proclaims that you highly value and appre- 
ciate the means of grace — that you earnestly desire 
and pray that the great ends to which these means 
point, may be realized by your offspring, and that 
on this solemn act of sacramental dedication of the 
infant given you, that Almighty blessing may de- 
scend, without which there may be heavy respon- 
sibility, but can be no saving result. 

7. You also profess your belief that this solemn 
sacrament is more than a sign. It is a seal also. 
It is the authentic seal of God appended to the 
promises of the gospel, that to your child will be 
made over all the grace, and mercy, and love con- 
tained in these promises, on his or her exercising 



56 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

faith in the Son of God. Baptism is God's visible 
promise. The wax on the parchment is common 
wax, but it is the personal adhesion of him whose 
name or crest it expresses, to all the stipulations 
of the compact, and the outward and available 
pledge that he is willing and ready to ratify them 
all. So with baptism. It is the earnest-penny — 
the wedding-ring — the perpetual seal — by looking 
on which the eye also is affected with the certainty 
of these truths, with which the everlasting gospel is 
vocal. What the rainbow was to Noah, baptism is 
to the church. Doubt not of the sincerity of the 
promises of God. Seek their fulfilment for your 
children, and teach your children to seek them for 
themselves. 



THE FATHER S PRAYER. 

Heavenly Father, in thy strength, and in the 
name of thy dear Son, I take upon me these so- 
lemn and weighty responsibilities. O give me 
help from thy sanctuary to fulfil them. Pour down 
on me thy Holy Spirit. Perfect thy strength in 
my weakness. May I receive grace to fulfil faith- 
fully what I have promised sincerely. May I 
never forget my spiritual in my natural relationship 
to this little one, thy gift. To thee I present this 
child, in the name of Jesus, a living sacrifice. At 
the gates of thy mercy I knock and wait. Cleanse 
thou the soul of this babe in that fountain opened 
for sin. Make good thy promise to be a God, not 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 57 

only to us, but to our seed. Fulfil the pledges of 
thy mercy to us and our children. Poor out thy 
Spirit on our seed, and thy blessing on our off- 
spring, that they may spring up as willows by the 
watercourses. Give me light to see clearly thy 
will — grace to express it in my life. Make me 
watchful over my temper — circumspect — righteous. 
Give me a double portion of that grace which 
teacheth to live soberly, righteously, and godly. 
Help me to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk 
humbly with thee. May my example commend 
thy gospel to all in this house. May my walk and 
conversation on earth be a blessing, and may my 
memory be revered by them that come after me. 
Take away my sins by the blood of Jesus. En- 
lighten my ignorance by thy Holy Spirit. Purify 
the thoughts of my heart. Give me strength for 
my day — bread to eat, and raiment to put on. 
Thou sendest none to warfare at their own charge. 
I look to thy promises. I lean on thy word. Let 
me never be confounded. Let thy grace be suffi- 
cient for me. I ask these and all other mercies 
for soul and body, for myself and my household, 
through the intercession of my Lord and Saviour 
Christ Jesus. Amen. 



THE MOTHER S PRAYER. 

Lord our Father, according to thy word, and 
in thy strength, I take upon me the solemn respon- 
sibilities of a sponsor, in addition to the weighty 
13* 



58 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

cares of a parent. The babe thou hast given me 
"to nurse for thee," I offer to be blessed by thee. 
Increase my faith in thy blessed Gospel. Strengthen 
my confidence in thy promises. Forgive, through 
the atonement of Jesus, my sins and mine iniqui- 
ties, and sanctify and purify my heart by thy Holy 
Spirit. O may a mother's ever-present example 
be an example powerful for good. May my words 
and walk be holy lessons. Give me wisdom from 
on high to bring up this child in the nurture and 
in the admonition of the Lord. May I henceforth 
train up this little one in the right way. Do thou 
give the obedient heart — the willing mind. May 
this child be a child of God — an heir of heaven — 
a blessing to us — a benefit to society. May our 
infant's be that good part which shall never be taken 
away. If it be thy holy will, spare this infant; 
but I leave its life and death with thy fatherly 
wisdom. Enable me to say, "The Lord gives, 
and the Lord takes away: blessed be the name of 
the Lord." 

Thou hast helped me when brought low, and de- 
livered my soul from death. Give me now grace 
to walk before thee in the land of the living. O 
satisfy us with thy mercy. Let thy work appear 
unto thy servants, and thy glory unto our children. 
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon 
us, and establish thou the w T ork of our hands upon 
us, yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. 
Hear, O Lord, the prayers of thy handmaid. Hold 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 59 

thou up my goings. Prosper me with thy blessing 
in all my relationships, and chiefly in that of a 
mother in Israel. May the examples of Mary, 
and Elizabeth, and Eunice, be dear to me. Above 
all, may I look up to Him who has left us a per- 
fect example, as well as a perfect atonement, for 
whose sake, and in whose name, I humbly seek 
these and all other mercies. Amen. 



60 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BAPTIZED. 

1. You have been enrolled in the ranks of the 
visible Church, and associated with that holy house- 
hold, of which Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and 
Prophets and Apostles were members. To the 
ancient Church was entrusted the honour of being 
the guardians of the oracles of God. To the 
evangelical Church is committed the same hallowed 
deposit. Yours is a place of heavy responsibility, 
of awful yet happy obligations. 

2. You have been solemnly presented to God in 
infancy 5 amid the prayers of venerable saints and 
faithful men. You are devoted and dedicated per- 
sons. You may not get rid of all that this involves 
and implies, unless you get rid of Christianity 
wholly. You have been set apart to the office of 
"a holy priesthood," and it should now be" your 
constant prayer that you may have the spirit of 
that divine office also. You are not common or un- 
clean. You are federally holy, " a Jew outwardly." 
May you by faith in Jesus become holy in heart. 

3. You are under solemn obligations to embrace 
the offers of the Gospel. " Believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ." Spiritually, and in heart accept 
the Saviour as your Saviour — his righteousness as 
your righteousness — his atonement as your only 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 61 

foundation — his holy life as your example; and 
openly and outwardly avow and acknowledge this 
by your appearance at the table of the Lord — your 
holy and consistent walk — your efforts to distribute 
what you have j-ourselves received and tasted, to 
them that are aliens and strangers. 

4. To such of you as are still under the roof 
and subject to the authority of parents, there is 
reflected from your baptism, on your parents, a 
new and holy light: towards you they sustain 
a spiritual as well as natural relationship — a priestly 
as well as parental character. They speak to you, 
not only with earthly but heavenly authority. 
Listen to them with reverence, honour them alike 
in their spiritual and temporal jurisdictions, receiv- 
ing their Counsels and admonitions as ordinances 
of divine obligation. 

5. Your name, according to an ancient usage, 
has been associated with your baptism. This 
should remind you when you sign it, w T hose you 
are, and for whose glory you should live. " It is the 
memento of your responsibility — an ever-present 
preacher that you are not your own. 

6. You are elevated to a high and honourable 
rank — you are numbered with the children of God 
— you are clothed with the holy livery, and called 
by the glorious name of Christian, while it may be 
true that you have only the form of the gospel: 
yet, as the ark saved from temporal judgments 
even the unregenerated Ham, so may the shadow 
of the church of God frequently screen you. 

F 



62 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

Sodom was protected by the presence of Lot. On 
your side do angels encamp, and while nothing 
short of renovation of heart and nature will qualify 
for heavenly happiness, yet may this outward bap- 
tism — this incorporation into outward fellowship 
with the saints of God, not only be to you the 
responsibility of a mighty privilege, but the tem- 
poral protection also of an outstretched shield, and 
the fiery storm that descends on the heathen may 
not fall on you yet, for the sake of those among 
whom you are placed in the providence of God. 

7. In baptism you are solemnly enrolled in the 
ranks of those who war against sin in its root and 
in its branches. You may desert your colours — 
you may renounce your baptism — you may in ma- 
turer years declare your deliberate abjuration of 
every responsibility your father and mother clothed 
you with at the baptismal font : all this you may 
do, and thereby stand before God denying the gos- 
pel, and trampling under foot all its privileges; but, 
until you do so, the minister of Christ must im- 
press upon your mind the sacred ties that bind you 
to the altar, and call upon you to follow out the 
obligations under which you lie. "Put off the 
works of darkness, put on the armour of light — 
put off the old man which is corrupt.' ' Crucify 
the flesh with its affections and lusts. Seek the 
Holy Spirit to enable you. 

8. Either, then, renounce that master to whom 
you were joined in baptism before you were able 
deliberately to exercise a choice, and whose claims 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 63 

in time and excellence are far preferable to those 
of any other, or avow yourselves his servants, pro- 
claim his cross your glory — his cause your cause 
— his word the lamp to your feet and the light to 
your path. Take up the heroic accents of Paul, 
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." " God 
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified 
unto me, and I unto the world." Retain j r our 
allegiance to him. His service is perfect freedom. 
His name is a strong tower. His gift is everlast- 
ing life. His covenant, into which you have been 
outwardly admitted, offers to faith an everlasting 
righteousness, and to hope a kingdom that cannot 
be moved. 

9. " Set your affections on things that are above, 
not on things that are below." The choicest 
earthly possessions enlarge desires they cannot 
gratify, and stimulate the passions they indulge. 
The fairest flowers of earth fade soonest when 
clasped most firmly. Requiems mingle with our 
evangels, and the plaintive minor of human sor- 
row runs through all our melodies. But in hea- 
ven, to which the baptized are invited to aspire, 
there is a surrounding zodiac of joy, from which 
there is no outlet — an eternity of bliss, of which 
there is no suspension. There the dim lights of 
time are absorbed into the emerald splendours of 
glory. " There is no night there." 



64 THE BAPTISMAL FONT, 



CHAPTER IX. 

PLACE OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF BAPTISM. 

This Sacrament ought unquestionably to be ad- 
ministered in the place of public worship, and be- 
fore the congregation. Sickness and distance 
alone should prevent this. All the reformed 
churches agree in this ; and in the Church of 
Scotland public baptism is absolutely obligatory, 
with the exceptions we have stated. 

It is the solemn introduction of the party bap- 
tized into the Christian Church; to express and 
embody which idea, however unnecessarily, the 
baptismal fonts were of old erected at the doors of 
the sacred edifice. It is also highly instructive, 
and may be the means of teaching new lessons on 
reviving old truths in the case of many present ; 
and therefore no minister ought to dispense this 
sacrament in private, without satisfactory reasons, 
of which he must be the judge. We cannot see 
the consistency of refusing to celebrate the Lord's 
Supper in the sick chamber, to " two or three be- 
lievers," with the practice of giving baptism in pri- 
vate rooms, and, as if to do away with all the 
solemnity of its service, finishing the day with 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 65 

feasting and merriment, and occasionally with 
dancing. 

2. The form of ^iptism is substantially the same 
in all Protestant Churches. In the Church of Scot- 
land it is celebrated with great simplicity, and as 
far as possible with rigid adherence to apostolic 
precedent. The beauty of the rite consists in its 
simplicity. Gorgeous ceremony is essential to the 
Romish rites, in order to conceal their contrariety 
to the gospel ; but where the truth taught is scrip- 
tural, the rite which signifies and seals it, ought to 
be scriptural also. Cumbrous forms burden rather 
than edify, and therefore the fewer rites we add to 
the original, the more instructive. Every thing in. 
Christianity is simple. All the robes of Levi were 
cast away when the vail of the temple was rent in 
twain. It is emphatically a " worship in spirit and 
in truth." 



14 f2 



66 THE BAPTISMAL FONT, 

THE ORDER OF PUBLIC BAPTISM 

IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 



The Parents, who are the sponsors, present 
themselves with their child during public worship, 
and after the sermon, at the place appointed for 
baptism. 

Minister. Is it your desire that your child 
should now be received into the visible church by 
the sacrament of baptism ? 

Father. It is. 

Minister. Do you believe in God the Father 
Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and of 
all things visible and invisible, and in Jesus Christ 
his only Son, our Lord ? — that he was conceived 
of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suf- 
fered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and 
buried, descended into hell (or state of the dead) 
— that he arose again from the dead, on the third 
day ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right 
hand of God the Father, from whence he shall 
come to judge the quick and the dead? Do you 
believe in the Holy Ghost, in the Holy Catholic 
(or universal) Church, in the communion of saints, 
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the 
body, and the life everlasting ? 



THE BAPTISMAL FONT, 67 

Father. We do. 

Minister. Do you promise and vow before God 
and this people, that you will train up your child 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that 
you will set before your child a holy and consistent 
example, that you will pray with and for your 
child ; and whatever duties and responsibilities de- 
volve on Christian parents and sponsors, these by 
God's grace you now promise to discharge, do you 
not? 

Father. We do promise. 

The Minister prays thus : — 
Lord Jesus, Great Head of the Church, who 
hath commissioned thy ministering servants to dis- 
ciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever thou 
didst command, and hast promised, " Lo, I am with 
you always :" grant us at this time the fulfilment 
of thy promise, and while thy servant baptizeth 
with water, do thou, whose prerogative it is, bap- 
tize with the Holy Ghost ; and this babe's shall be 
the blessing, and thine the everlasting glory. 

The Minister then pours or sprinkles water on the 
forehead of the infant, using these words following : — 

N. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 

The Minister then prays. 
Lord, be pleased to ratify in heaven what has 



68 THE BAPTISMAL FONT. 

now been done in thy name upon earth. Regene- 
rate and renew the heart of this little one. Seal 
to him all the promised blessings of the Gospel ; 
and if spared may he grow up a blessing to his 
parents, an ornament to thy church, and heir of 
thy glory. 

Give unto thy servants, the parents, grace and 
strength to fulfil their vows. Replenish them with 
thy Holy Spirit, and abundantly bless them. We 
thank thee for thy goodness to the mother in the 
time of suffering. Her soul would now magnify 
the Lord and rejoice in God her Saviour, for he 
hath regarded the low estate of his handmaid. May 
a mother's great influence be consecrated by thee 
to the best interest of her offspring. We would 
all feel that thine eyes are upon us, and would all 
live for thee. We ask all in the name of Jesus 
Christ, our only advocate and mediator. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love 
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be 
with you all. Amen. 



APPENDIX. 



The following admirable remarks on baptism, in the shape 
of question and answer, are taken from a very scarce work, 
entitled "Truth's Victory over Error," written by the Rev. 
David Dickson, a celebrated Professor of Divinity in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, two centuries ago, and author of many 
able and useful works on theology. 

Of Baptism. 

"Is the sacrament of baptism with water, by Christ's 
appointment, to be continued in his church to the end of the 
world ? 

" Yes, Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. 

"Well, then, do not the Quakers err, who maintain, that 
baptism with water is not an ordinance of divine institution, 
and that there is no gospel precept for it ? 

"Yes. 

"By what reasons are they confuted? 

" 1st, Because Christ, taking his farewell of his disciples, 
gave them this commission, ' Go ye therefore and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost.' According to the original word, ■ make all na- 
tions disciples,' by your doctrine, * baptizing them in the name 
of,' &c. All which words are spoken by his own breath. 
Whence it is clear, that the same very persons that were com- 
manded to make all nations disciples by their doctrine, were 

14 * m 



70 APPENDIX. 

commanded to baptize them. But it was not in their power to 
administer the inward baptism; that is, to baptize with the 
Holy Ghost, and with fire. Men may well administer the 
water, or external sign, but it is Christ that bestows the in- 
ward grace, and thing signified ; as is clear from Matt. iii. 11 ; 
where John the Baptist says, * I indeed baptize you with water 
unto repentance ; but he that cometh after me, shall baptize 
you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire/ If any man had re- 
ceived this power of baptism with the Holy Ghost, then surely 
John would have received it, whom Jesus so highly commends, 
as that * there was not a greater than he born of woman/ 
Matt. xi. 11. And though our Saviour subjoins, ' He that is 
least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he ;' yet this 
will not infer that any among the teachers of the gospel, had 
the power of baptizing with the Holy Ghost, which he had not; 
but only that they did show Christ more clearly, as having 
most perfectly accomplished whatsoever was requisite to our 
salvation ; and did publish this, not only to the Jews, but also 
to the Gentiles. And so Christ, as the master, employed only 
the disciples, as his servants, to dispense and act ministerially 
in his service, reserving the blessing of their employments to 
himself. Now, baptizing with the Holy Ghost is the greatest 
blessing of the gospel ; and so cannot flow but from Christ 
himself. 2nd, Because the disciples of Christ acted only 
ministerially under him in working of miracles, therefore they 
could not administer baptism with the Holy Ghost, seeing this 
is a greater power than the other. The curing of the soul is a 
far greater work, than to cure miraculously the body. The 
work of conversion and regeneration, is a work beyond the 
creating of heaven and earth. There was only here the intro- 
ducing of a new form, but no contrary form, or quality to be 
expelled. But in this, the heart of stone must not only be 
taken away, but a heart of flesh must be given. That they 
acted only ministerially under Christ, it is evident from what 
Peter says : * Ye men of Israel, why look ye so earnestly on us, 
as though by our own power and godliness we had made this 
man to walk?' Acts iii. 12. And the same Peter says, * Eneas, 



APPENDIX. 71 

Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." Acts ix. 34. See Mark 
xvi. 17 ; 1 Cor. xii. 10. 3rd, Because if this commission em- 
powered the Apostles to baptize only with the Holy Ghost, 
and not with water, then they, in the exercise of this commis- 
sion, would only have baptized men and women with the 
Holy Ghost, and not with water ; but the contrary is manifest, 
Acts ii. 38, where Peter makes a distinction between being 
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the gift 
of the Holy Ghost ; namely, the gifts and graces of the Holy 
Spirit, which are common to all believers, and necessary to 
salvation. 4th, Because if baptism with the Holy Ghost be 
here meant, then all whom the Apostles did baptize were bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost ; which is false : for Ananias and 
Sapphira could not have been hypocrites if they had been bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost. And Simon was baptized, and 
yet not with the Holy Ghost, as appears by Peter's answer to 
him, ver. 21, 22, of the fifth chapter. 5th, Because if Christ's 
commission carry not a warrant for baptizing with water, 
whence, then, had the Apostles a warrant for baptizing with 
water? Either they must produce, and let us see another 
commission for it, or else they must acknowledge that the 
Apostles did warrantably baptize with water. But another 
commission the Quakers cannot show us from Scripture. 

"Is dipping of the person (to be baptized) into water 
necessary ? 

"No. 

" Is baptism rightly administered by pouring, or sprinkling 
water upon the person ? 

" Yes. Acts ii. 41 ;• Acts xvi. 33. 

" Well, then, do not the Baptists err, who maintain dipping 
to be an absolute and necessary ceremony in baptism ? 

" Yes. 

" By what reasons are they confuted ? 

" 1st, Because the Greek word in the original signifies as 
well to pour and sprinkle water, as it signifies to dip, Mark 
vii. 4, where it is said, 'And when they come from the market, 
unless they wash, or be baptized, they eat not.' 2nd, Because 
we read of three thousand baptized in one day, in the streets 



72 APPENDIX. 

of Jerusalem, by twelve Apostles at the most, where there was 
no river to dip them into. Acts ii. 41. And was not Jerusalem, 
and all Judea, and the region round about Jordan, baptized by 
John the Baptist himself alone, which could not be done to 
all and every one by dipping? Matt. iii. 5, 6. 3rd, Were not 
many baptized in private houses, as we read in the history of 
the Acts, chap. x. 47, and xviii. 8, with ix. 17, and xvi. 33. 
4th, Because dipping of infants into water in these cold 
countries would be hurtful and dangerous to them. But God 
would rather have mercy than sacrifice, Matt. ix. 13. 

"Are the infants of one or both believing persons to be 
baptized? 

" Yes. Gen. xvii. 7, 9 ; Gen. iii. 9, 14 ; Col. ii. 11, 12 ; Acts 
ii. 38, 39 ; Eom. iv. 11, 12. 

" Well, then, do not the Baptists err, who maintain, that 
no infants, though born of believing parents, ought to be 
baptized? 

" Yes. 

" By what reasons are they confuted ? 

" 1st, Because to covenanted ones, (of which number the 
infants of believers are, no less than their parents, Acts ii. 38, 
39 ; Acts iii. 25 ; Kom. ix. 16 ; Gen. xvii. 7, 22,) the seal of 
the covenant, of which they are capable, is not to be denied. 
Gen. xvii. 7, 10, 11. 2nd, Because the outward sacrament of 
water cannot be denied to such as have received the Spirit of 
Christ, and to whom the promises of the New Covenant sealed 
up in baptism do belong. Acts x. 47 ; xi. 15, 16, 17. But to 
some infants of believers, as well as to others, come to age, the 
Spirit of Christ hath been given. Jer. i. 5 ; Luke i. 15 ; Matt. 
xix. 14 ; Mark x. 13, 14. And to them do the promises belong. 
Acts ii. 39. 3rd, Because the infants of believers are members 
of the church, which is sanctified and cleansed with the wash- 
ing of water by the word, Eph. v. 25, 26 ; Joel ii. 16 ; Ezek. 
xvi. 20, 21 ; 1 Cor. vii. 14. Because infants, no less than 
others come to age, were baptized in the cloud and in the sea. 
1 Cor. x. 2. 5th, Because Christ commanded that all nations 
should be baptized, a great part whereof were infants. Gen. 
xxii. 18 ; Matt, xxviii. 19. 6th, Because Christ commanded 



APPENDIX. 73 

baptism to be administered to disciples, (infants also are here 
to be taken in, Acts xv. 10,) Matt, xxviii. 19. The word in 
the original is ftaQtitsvoats, teach, instruct, or make disciples 
among all nations, baptizing them. The signification of this 
Greek word may be gathered from John iv. 1, where it is said, 
that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made disciples. So 
that paOri'tsvstv and (xadrjtas rioaw, are both one thing. 7th, 
Because the children of believers were, by a divine right, cir- 
cumcised under the Old Testament ; therefore the children of 
believers, under the New Testament, ought to be baptized, be- 
cause the one hath succeeded the other. That baptism suc- 
ceeds to circumcision is evident, first, because they both seal 
up the same thing ; next, as circumcision was the initiating 
seal under the Old Testament, so is baptism under the New; 
and because the Apostles did administer it so early to the dis- 
ciples, at the first appearing of their new birth and interest in 
the covenant. Moreover, because by baptism, we are said to 
put on Christ. Gal. iii. 27. That they both seal up the same 
thing, is evident by comparing Rom. iv. 11, with Mark i. 4, 
Acts ii. 28, where circumcision is declared to be a seal of the 
righteousness of faith, and baptism is held forth to be a pledge 
of the remission of sins ; as also may be seen Rom. iv. 6, 7, 8. 
See Col. ii. 11, 12, where the Apostle teaches, that our being 
buried with Christ in baptism, is our circumcision with Christ, 
which shows that baptism hath succeeded to us in the room of 
circumcision. 8th, Because the Apostle says, that the infants 
but of one believing parent are holy, 1 Cor. vii. 14; that is, 
are comprehended in the outward covenant of God, and have 
access to the signs and seals of God's grace, as well as they 
that are born of both believing parents. 

"Are grace and salvation so inseparably annexed unto 
baptism, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, with- 
out it? 

"No. 

" Are all that are baptized undoubtedly regenerated ? 

" No. Acts viii. 13, 23. 

"Well, then, do not the Papists err, who maintain, that 
baptism is simply necessary to salvation ; and that all and 

a 



74 APPENDIX. 

those only who are baptized, are most surely regenerated in 
that same very moment of time wherein baptism is ad- 
ministered ? 

"Yes. 

" By what reasons are they confuted ? 

" 1st, Because the thief upon the cross, and others were 
saved, that were never baptized. Luke xxiii. 44. 2nd, Because 
persons unbaptized have had saving faith. Acts x, 22, 44. 
3rd, Because infants that are predestinated unto life, though 
they may die in their mother's womb, yet they cannot 
perish. Matt, xviii. 14. 4th, Because some children, before 
their baptism, have been beloved of God, whose love is un- 
changeable. Rom. ix. 11, 13. Others have been regenerated 
by the Holy Ghost. Luke i. 15 ; and some have been also 
comprehended within the covenant of grace. Acts ii. 39. 5th, 
Because, that baptism without faith, and the inward operation 
of the Holy Spirit, hath no efficacy to salvation. Mark xvi. 1G ; 
1 Peter iii. 21. 6th, Because the baptism of the Spirit, at one 
time goes before, at another time follows baptism with water. 
Acts x. 37 ; Matt. iii. 11. 7th, Because very many that are 
baptized within the visible church are damned. Matt. vii. 13, 
14. 8th, Because in those who are come to age, faith and re- 
pentance are pre-required to baptism ; and therefore, before 
they can be baptized, they have the beginning of regeneration. 
Acts ii. 38. 9th, Because not all that are baptized are elected. 
Matt. xx. 16 ; but all that are elected by God, are in time re- 
generated. 1 Pet. i. 2. 10th, Because the Holy Ghost is a 
most free agent and worker; and therefore his operations, 
(whereon the efficacy of baptism depends,) whereby we are 
regenerated, is not tied to any one moment of time. John iii. 8. 
11th, Because baptism is not a converting, but a confirming 
ordinance, even as the Lord's Supper is. 

" The Papists do otherwise contradict the second part, in 
affirming, that the virtue and efficacy of baptism (as to the 
abolishing and sealing up the remission of more grievous 
sins, and failings, which they call mortal) doth not extend it- 
self to the time to come, but to the time past; so that if the 
persons baptized fall into some deadly and dangerous sin, 



APPENDIX. 75 

which wounds the conscience, there is need of another sacra- 
ment, viz., penance, whereby the remission of that mortal sin, 
as they call it, is sealed up unto him. 

" By what reasons are they confuted ? 

" 1st, Because the sacrament of baptism, after the adminis- 
tration thereof, doth not cease to be a sacrament of the blood 
of Christ, which purgeth us from all our sins. Mark i. 4 ; 
1 John i. 7. 2nd, Because justification by faith (which is 
sealed to us by baptism, Kom. iv. 11; Col. ii. 11, 12) is for 
all sins committed before and after baptism. Acts xiii. 36. 
3rd, Because our Saviour says, * He that believeth, and is bap- 
tized, shall be saved/ Mark xvi. 16. 4th, Because not only 
the beginning of our salvation is referred to baptism, but also 
salvation itself and eternal life. 1 Pet. iii. 21. 5th, Because 
the Scripture bringeth arguments from the use and remem- 
brance of baptism, by which we that have been baptized are 
stirred up to holiness and newness of life, and to put off the 
old man, and, consequently, all those sins which the adversaries 
call mortal. Rom. iii. 2, 3 ; Gal. iii. 27 ; Col. ii. 11, 12. 

" Is the sacrament of baptism but once to be administered 
to any person ? 

" Once only. Gal. iii. 27 ; Tit. iii. 5. 

" Well, then, do not the Marcionites err, who maintain that 
men, after grosser failings, ought to be re-baptized ? 

"Yes. 

" Do not likewise the Hemerobaptists err, who maintain that 
men, according to their faults every day, ought every day to be 
baptized ? 

"Yes. 

" Do not, lastly, the Baptists err, who maintain that children 
baptized, ought to be re-baptized when they come to age ? 

"Yes. 

"By what reasons are they confuted? 

1st, Because baptism is a sacrament of admission into the 
visible church, and of regeneration (which is one only, 1 John 
iii. 9). 1 Cor. xii. 13 ; Tit. iii. 5 ; Eph. v. 26. 2nd, Because 
'there is a command for repeating and frequent using the Lord's 
Supper, 1 Cor. xxii. 25, 26 ; but no precept or command for 



76 APPENDIX. 

repeating baptism. 3rd, Because circumcision (to which suc- 
ceeded baptism) was never repeated, as the passover was. 4th, 
Because baptism is a seal of adoption. Gal. iii. 26, 27. But 
whom God loveth, and hath once adopted, those he never 
casteth off afterwards. Eom. xi. 29. 5th, Because the 
apostle says, there is but one baptism, Eph. iv. 5 ; namely, not 
only in number, but also in the administration upon us all. 
Rom. vi. 3, 4." 



II. 

The following are Extracts from the Articles and Creeds of 
the Reformed Churches on the nature and signification of 
Baptism. 

Thirty-nine Articles. 

Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of differ- 
ence whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be 
not christened, but it is also a sign of regeneration or new 
birth ; whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism 
rightly are grafted into the church ; the promises of forgive- 
ness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the 
Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed, 
and grace increased, by virtue of prayer unto God. The bap- 
tism of young children is in anywise to be retained in the 
church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ. 

Belgic Confession. 

Christ hath instituted baptism in the place of circumcision, 
whereby we are received into the Church of God, and separated 
from all other nations, and all kinds of strange religions, 



APPENDIX. 77 

being consecrated to him alone, whose badge and cognizance 
we wear. Therefore the Lord hath commanded all his to be 
baptized with pure water, " In the name of the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost." 



Augsburg Confession. 
Young infants are to be baptized. 

Confession of the Church of Scotland. 

We utterly damn the vanity of those that affirm sacraments 
to be nothing else but naked and bare signs. We assuredly 
believe, that by baptism we are engrafted in Christ Jesus, to 
be made partakers of his justice, by which our sins are covered 
and remitted. 

Westminster Confession. 

Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by 
Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party 
baptized into the visible church, but also to be unto him a 
sign and a seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into 
Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving 
up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. 
Not only those that do profess faith in, and obedience unto 
Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents 
are to be baptized. The sacrament of baptism is but once to 
be administered to any person. 



15 g2 



78 APPENDIX. 



III. 



The following Questions are from the Larger Catechism of the 
Church of Scotland. 

Q. What is a sacrament ? 

A, A sacrament is a holy ordinance, instituted by Christ in 
the church, to sginify, seal, and exhibit unto those that are 
within the covenant of grace the benefits of his mediation, to 
strengthen and increase their faith, and all other graces, to 
oblige them to obedience, to testify and cherish their love and 
communion one with another, and to distinguish them from 
those that are without. 

Q. What are the parts of a sacrament? 

A. The parts of a sacrament are two — the one an outward 
and sensible sign, used according to Christ's own appointment; 
the other, an inward and spiritual grace thereby signified. 

Q. How many sacraments hath Christ instituted in his 
church under the New Testament ? 

A. Under the New Testament, Christ hath instituted in his 
church only two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

Q. What is baptism ? 

A. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, wherein 
Christ had ordained the washing with water, in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to be a 
sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, of remission of sins 
by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit, of adoption and 
resurrection unto everlasting life, and whereby the parties bap- 
tized are solemnly admitted into the visible church, and enter 
into an open and professed engagement to be wholly and only 
the Lord's. 

Q. Unto whom is baptism to be administered ? 

A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of 
the visible church, and so strangers from the covenant of 



APPENDIX. 79 

promise, till they profes3 their faith in Christ and obedience to 
Him ; but infants, descending from parents, either both, or but 
one of them, professing faith in Christ, and obedience to Him, 
are in that respect within the covenant, and to be baptized. 

Q. How is our baptism to be improved by us ? 

A. The needful, but much-neglected duty, of improving our 
baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially 
in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the 
administration of it to others, by serious and thankful considera- 
tion of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ insti- 
tuted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed there- 
by, and our solemn vow made thereon, by being humbled for 
our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary 
to the grace of baptism and our engagements, by growing up 
to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed 
to us in that sacrament; by drawing strength from the death 
and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the 
mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace ; and by endeavour- 
ing to live by faith, to have our conversation in righteousness 
and holiness, as those that have therein given up their names 
to Christ ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by 
the same Spirit into one body. 



IV. 

The following judicious remarks on baptism are taken from 
" GarbeWs Bampton Lectures," a work of great learning 
and value. 

" The efficacy of both sacraments is dependent on that faith 
which incorporates us with the Eedeemer, and secures to the 
visible sign the accompanying energy of the promised grace. 



80 APPENDIX. 

Wherever, therefore, the holy disposition and wish to receive 
it exists, and the heart is prepared for its reception by the pre- 
vious influences of the Spirit, should the constraint of outward 
circumstances prevent the application of the rite, or death 
intervene before its administration, the salvation of that soul is 
not imperilled ; but by virtue of the gospel promises, to faith, 
and repentance, and the seal of the Holy Ghost on the heart, 
as surely as God is true, and Christ a sufficient Saviour, it is 
received as a real member of the church spiritual into the com- 
munion of the blessed. That such was the belief of the ancient 
church, there can be no question. We are told expressly by 
Augustine, that a man is not deprived of the spiritual benefits 
of the sacrament, though he be not baptized, so long as he 
finds in himself that thing which the sacrament signifies. And 
in mentioning the case of Cornelius, he says expressly, that 
there had preceded a spiritual sanctification in the gift of the 
Holy Spirit, * and the sacrament of regeneration was added in 
the laver of baptism.' Spiritual sanctification, therefore, pre- 
ceded the sign, in Augustine's opinion, and in this case existed 
without it, though the fulness, and outward sealing of the 
Christian privileges, accompanied the sacrament, which no one 
would deny. Finally, we know not that the first Apostles of 
Christ were baptized at all, and they remained in the midst of 
the church which they initiated with the consecrated water, 
examples of the mighty change figured in the outward rite, 
and monuments of the inward power, apart from the washing 
of the flesh. Jeremiah and John the Baptist were sanctified 
even from their mother's womb ; and holy Abraham was justi- 
fied and regenerated, for they are inseparable from each other, 
before he received the outward sacrament, which was the sign 
of the faith which he had, being yet uncircumcised. ' By these,' 
says Jewell, * it may appear that the sacrament maketh not a 
Christian, but is a seal and assurance to all that receive it, of 
the grace of God, unless they make themselves unworthy re- 
ceivers thereof.'" — GarbeWs Bampton Lectures, Vol. i. p. 239- 
242. 



APPENDIX. 81 



V. 

The following are extracts from eminent Divines at and since the 
Reformation. 

Archbishop Cranmer, in his defence of the Catholic doc- 
trine of the Sacraments, book iv. chap. 7, thus writes: "In 
baptism, those that come feignedly, and those that come un- 
feignedly, both be washed with the sacramental water, but 
both be not washed with the Holy Ghost, and clothed with 
Christ." 

Bishop Latimer's Sermons, (Faber). — "What is this re- 
generation ? It is not to be christened in water, and nothing 
else. St. Peter said, ■ We are born again/ How ? Not by a 
mortal seed, but by an immortal. What is this immortal seed ? 
• By the word of the living God/ preached and opened." 

Bishop Hooper, (Parker Society, p. 76). — "There are two 
kinds of baptism, and both necessary. The one interior, 
which is the cleansing of the heart, the drawing of the Father, 
the operation of the Holy Ghost ; and this baptism is in man 
when he believeth, and trusteth that Christ is the only author 
of his salvation. A traitor may receive the crown, and yet be 
true king nothing the rather. So a hypocrite and infidel may 
receive the external sign of baptism, and yet no Christian 
nothing the rather, as Simon Magus and others." 

Archbishop Usher's Body of Divinity, Kobinson's Edition, 
1841, p. 499. — •" We do not affirm of all that are partakers of 
the outward washing of baptism, that they are partakers also 
of the inward washing of the Spirit, nor that the sacrament 
doth seal up their spiritual engrafting into Christ to all who 
may receive it. For though God hath ordained these outward 
means for the conveyance of the inward grace to our souls, yet 
there is no necessity that we should see the working of God's 
Spirit in the sacraments, more than in the word. The pro- 
15* 



82 APPENDIX. 

mises of salvation, Christ, and all his benefits, are preached 
and offered to all in the ministry of his word, yet all hearers 
have not conveyed to their souls by the Spirit but those whom 
God hath ordained in life. So in the sacraments the outward 
elements are dispensed to all who make an outward profession 
of the gospel, (for to infants, their being born in the bosom of 
the church, is instead of an outward profession,) because man 
is not able to distinguish corn from chaff; but the inward 
grace of the sacrament is not communicated to all, but to those 
only who are heirs of those promises whereof the sacraments 
are seals. 1. Often baptism is deferred, and that upon every 
trifling occasion, as if it were a business of no great weight 
and moment, but might attend every one's leisure ; and many 
times, through delay, the child dieth without it, which though 
it doth nothing prejudice the child's salvation, yet it will lie 
heavy upon the parent's conscience for neglecting God's ordi- 
nance, when he afforded opportunity. 2. Often the minister is 
sent from home to perform that service with few in a private 
chamber, when no imminent necessity urgeth to the dishonour 
of so sacred a business, which ought to be a most solemn and 
public action of the whole congregation. 3. Though the child 
be brought to church, yet often some by-day is chosen, and not 
the Lord's Sabbath. 4. If it be on the Sabbath-day, then the 
main care and preparation is about matters of outward pomp 
and state ; everything is fitted and prepared for the purpose, 
but only that which should chiefly be, viz., the hearts and 
minds of those that go about a business of that nature. 5. 
While the sacrament is in performing, the demeanour of many 
showeth that they have a slight opinion of that service. 6. 
Lastly, infants are brought to the sacrament of baptism in 
infancy, but are never by their parents taught the doctrine of 
baptism when they come to years of understanding : baptism 
is not made use of as it ought in the whole course of men's lives. 
" 1. Every one should consider that it is no customary for- 
mality, but an honourable ordinance instituted by the lawful 
authority of God himself. 2. Every one should consider that 
there are infinite mercies sealed up by it to the faithful and to 
their seed. Every one that is present at baptism, should con- 



APPENDIX. 83 

eider, that it being a public action of the congregation, every 
particular person ought reverently to join in it. Shall the 
whole Trinity be present at baptism, and we be gone ?" 

Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. sect. 57 : — 
" The sacraments are not physical, but moral instruments of 
salvation, duties of service and worship ; for all receive not the 
grace of God who receive the sacraments of his grace." 

Witsius writes : — " If no other benefit accrued from infant 
baptism, every prudent person will own it to be very great, 
that it lays the most inviolable necessity on parents carefully 
to train up their children, which they have so early devoted to 
God in the mysteries of the Christian religion, and in the prac- 
tice of true piety. 

Beza writes: — "We baptize the young children of the faith- 
ful, as they have used and done from the Apostles' days in the 
church of God ; and we doubt not, but God by this mark, 
joined with the prayers of the church, doth seal the adoption 
and election of those whom he hath predestinated eternally, 
whether they die before they come to age of discretion, or live 
to bring forth fruits of their faith in due time, and according 
to the the means which God hath ordained." 

Archbishop Leighton writes : — " You think the renouncing 
of baptism a horrible word, and that we should speak so only 
of witches ; yet it is a common guiltiness, that cleaves to all 
who renounce not the filthy lusts and the self-will of our own 
hearts. For baptism carries in it a renouncing of these, and 
so the cleaving to these is a renouncing of it. Oh ! we are all 
sealed for God in baptism, but who lives as if it were so ! How 
few have the impression of it on the conscience, and the ex- 
pression of it in the walk and fruit of their life ! "We have 
been a long time hearers of the gospel, whereof baptism is the 
seal, and most of us often at the Lord's table. What hath all 
this done upon us ? Ask within : Are your hearts changed ? 
Is there a new creation there ? Where is that spiritual-minded- 
ness ? Are your hearts dead to the world and sin, and alive 
to God, your conscience purged from dead works V 9 

THE END. 



t taimuttifltt §Mk 



PKEFACE. 



In this little work, the writer desires to present 
in the most intelligible terms, right Scriptural 
views on an ordinance very much and very gene- 
rally misinterpreted and misunderstood. Nothing 
can be plainer than the Scriptural account of it. 
Nothing can be more perplexing than the descrip- 
tions and definitions often given of it. 

There is nothing in this treatise, either new, or 
eloquent, or grand. Its plainness is the chief 
recommendation of its style, and its truthfulness 
the only excellency in its matter. 

The author earnestly prays that it may please 
the Holy Spirit to bless this work to the edification 
and comfort of his people. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

Pagb 
The Law and Limit of Ordinances 7 

II. 
The Institution of the Communion v . 24 

III. 
The First Communion. 32 

IV. 
The Subject of the Communion 48 

V. 
Communicants »_ 64 

VI. 
The Communicant's Heart 84 

VII. 

The Passover Lamb and Feast ; or, Christ and the 

Communion 106 

16 a 2 (») 



VI CONTENTS. 

VIII. 

Daily Bread ; or, Thoughts for a Communion Sabbath. 130 

IX. 

Cleaving to the Saviour; or, After-Communion Vows... 152 

X. 

Communicants the Lights of the World ; or, After- 
Communion Duties 167 

Appendix 186 



THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



i. 

THE LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 

" God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must worship 
him in spirit and in truth." — John iv. 16. 

According to thy gracious word, 

In meek humility, 
Thy will I do, my dying Lord, 

I will remember thee. 

After the remarkable conversation held between 
our Lord and the woman of Samaria, — the one 
the preacher, the other the arrested but solitary 
audience, — our Lord said to her, in order to bring 
her sin clearly into the light of her own eyes, and 
thereby conviction to her conscience, " Bring thy 
husband ;" and then the great fact came out, that, 
living in the violation of the law of God, she was 
destitute alike of that character which could appre- 
ciate the living water, and of that peace which is 
the fruit of its possession. She perceived from our 
Lord's remark that he knew her heart, and justly 
inferred that "the Seacher of hearts'' is God's 

(vii) 



8 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

great and exclusive attribute. The woman felt hi3 
hand amid her tangled affections, and his eye upon 
the secret recesses of her inmost soul ; and the con- 
sciousness of this instantly brought forth the ex- 
pression alike of her fears and faith : " Sir, I per- 
ceive that thou art a prophet.' ' She knew not that 
he was the Prophet, but she concluded that he 
must be at least a prophet. But here do we dis- 
cover the features of human nature. Instead of 
bringing her sins more fully before him, in order 
to be expiated and extirpated, she introduced a 
mere speculative question about ceremonials. 
When a person feels God's truth touching the con- 
science, his first effort is to cast it off and get rid 
of it, to put something between it and the heart ; 
because the last thing that the sinner likes to come 
close to him is that truth w T hich is not merely intel- 
lectual truth but holy truth. The woman felt it, 
and therefore raised the question about places of 
worship, and forms of worship ; she started the 
old controversy which had long been agitated and 
was not then settled, and in fact, if we may judge 
from many of the most popular discussions of the 
day, is changed in name, but unsettled still. Jesus 
solved it by announcing one of those sublime 
and noble aphorisms which at once proved, when 
contrasted with all that was said by the mightiest 
before him, and all that was uttered by the wisest 
round him, that " never man spake like this man." 
He announced one of those great truths which lie 
at the root of all true worship, without which the 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 9 

grandest worship is but mummery, and the most 
harmonious praise is but the tinkling cymbal and 
the sounding brass. On this grand requirement I 
desire to speak plainly, introductory to my explana- 
tion of the Lord's Supper. 

" The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this 
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the 
Father. God is a Spirit, and they that worship 
him must worship him in spirit and in truth," 
These last words lie at the root of every right 
apprehension of the ordinances, ceremonies, and 
usages of the Gospel. By this criterion we must 
examine every form, and ceremony, and usage. In 
as far as it contradicts this, or runs away from this, 
in so far it ceases to be scriptural and useful. 
There are in these words two great facts, God and 
worship. God is said to be "a Spirit;" the wor- 
ship is required to be "in spirit and in truth." All 
worship, therefore, must be suited to the nature of 
God. He is a Spirit, and yet it must not be 
opposed to the nature of man, who is flesh and 
blood as well as spirit. There are two great mis- 
conceptions of all worship, which more or less pre- 
vail, the one the extreme of the other, in every 
age and phasis of the Christian Church. One 
party, or one side, repudiate all outward forms, all 
ceremony, rite, ordinance, sacrament, on the 
ground that God is a Spirit; and therefore they 
are inapplicable. Another party takes rites, cere- 
monies, sacraments, usages, and materializes them, 
sensualizes them, or rather, I should add, idolizes 
16* 



10 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

them, and makes them idols or substitutes for God, 
until the worship is continued for the worship's 
sake, and God, the object of worship, is lost in 
the foliage, or buried amid the pomp and grandeur 
of the ceremony in which he is approached. These 
are the two extremes. The first, or the abstraction 
of all rite, sacrament, ceremony, and means of 
grace, tends to mysticism, or quietism, having no 
outward exponent or worship whatever ; and when 
the fervour of the first feeling dies away, it ends 
generally in absolute scepticism ; because man 
must have an outward form in which to worship ; 
without this, the worship is unsuitable to his nature, 
and will cease to be exercised at all. We cannot 
breathe in an exhausted receiver, we cannot live 
without air ; if we were pure spirit, we might live 
thus ; but as we are not pure spirit, but compound 
creatures, our worship must be like our condition, 
partly palpable, partly spiritual, but yet its pre- 
dominating and controlling element must be, to be 
right and acceptable, in spirit and in truth. 
Another party rushes to the very opposite extreme, 
and plunges into Popery ; the sign takes the place 
of the thing signified, the worship of Him who is 
worshipped. The worshipper rests on his worship, 
and does not stretch his wing and soar beyond it ; 
and the worship, instead of conducting to Him 
who ought to be its object and end, takes all the 
adoration to itself, and becomes a god to him that 
exhibits it. Hence, in the Church of Rome, every 
rite is there for itself: the worshipper rarely looks 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 11 

beyond it, and the tendency of the whole system, 
instead of lifting man nearer to God, is to 
lower God till the idea of Deity is buried in 
the sensualism of man. Our Lord's prescription 
is the corrector of both. There must be worship 
— worship suited to the nature of Him who is a 
Spirit, and therefore spiritual, and yet fitted to the 
nature of man, who is animal and spiritual too. 
There must be worship, but the object of it God 
alone — nothing short of him — nothing beyond 
him — nothing on either side of him. There must 
be place, but it may be anywhere, neither "this 
mountain nor that." There must be time and 
tongue, but all times are canonical, all tongues are 
hallowed, if there be a holy heart and spiritual 
worship. The noblest music has no melody unless 
it be in spirit and in truth. The grandest architec- 
ture has no beauty unless a spiritual worship be 
presented in it. The great requirement is "in 
spirit and in truth ;" the circumstantials must be, 
but they may be adjusted, arranged, and shaped to 
the convenience of man, but never man shaped to 
them. The Jew could carry on his worship in 
Palestine only, it was out of place when out of 
Palestine : the Mahometan can carry on his wor- 
ship in warm climates only ; take it from beneath 
the sun, and it freezes. The Hindoo worship must 
be in India; remove it from the Ganges, and it 
dies. But the Christian's worship may be on 
" Greenland's icy mountains," or on " India's coral 
strand;" it maybe in the Torrid Zone, or under 



12 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

the Equator, or at the Pole ; it may be in all lands, 
in all latitudes, in all places, under any circum- 
stances, at midnight or at mid-day; this only is 
essential, that it be "in spirit and in truth. " God 
is where this is, to accept the worship, to hear the 
worshipper, and to answer his petition. The great 
essential in the worshipper is that the heart shall 
be there, that it shall be "in spirit and in truth, ,, 
i, e. really bond fide. God, when he listens to wor- 
ship, does not look at the eloquence of the words, 
but at the feeling of the worshipper. God does 
not mind that the prayer is in a rugged form, or 
that the language is not beautiful, but he does 
mind whether the heart be there or not. And 
hence, whenever you approach God, be it in 
prayer, in praise, or in the Lord's supper, be it at 
baptism, at reading his word, or sitting in the pews, 
— pray that within you may hear him saying, 
"My son, give me" — beautiful w^ords, if you like 
— a quiet Sabbath aspect, if you like — but give me 
this, without which the worship is in vain — "thy 
heart." 

Scepticism, or Socinianism, which is the lowest 
form of Christianity, if Christianity at all, would 
do without rites and ceremonies ; and Popery again, 
which is the opposite extreme, would make them 
all and in all. Hence the Socinian volatilizes the 
Lord's supper, if I may use the word, into a meta- 
phor, and the Eomanist condenses it into a god. 

The Lord has instituted, it is plain, in the ancient 
dispensation many, and in the Christian, or the 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 13 

spiritual dispensation, still several outward ordi- 
nances, in which, and in the legitimate and Scrip- 
tural use of which, he is by his own people 
legitimately worshipped. Do you ask, why God 
has instituted these ordinances ? Not for himself 
but for us. He needs them not : man cannot well, 
in this imperfect dispensation, do without them. 
Were we all flesh and blood, we could do nothing 
without them ; because we are spirit, and flesh and 
blood, there is the material and there is the spirit- 
ual part, and in their proper places, and in their 
right view, and by a true heart, we use them as 
becomes us, and worship God "in spirit and in 
truth. " To give some instances of this. In Deut. 
xi. 29: God said to the Israelites, "And it shall 
come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought 
thee in unto the land, whither thou goest to possess 
it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon Mount 
Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal." Why 
this now ? why not say that the blessing shall be on 
those that fear me, and the curse on those that 
hate me ? I answer, God saw that without some 
visible memorial of the great truth, they would 
very soon forget it. So in the book of Numbers, 
in chap. xv. 38, 39, w T e find another direction, 
which seems very unnecessary at first sight : " Speak 
unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they 
make them fringes in the borders of their garments 
throughout their generations, and that they put 
upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue : 
and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may 

B 



14 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

look upon it, and remember all the commandments 
of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye seek not 
after your own heart and your own eyes." They 
might say, why appoint this visible memorial? 
have we not thy word ? must we not recollect thy 
precepts ? God knew T best, and had not the visible 
memento been necessary, God had never instituted 
it, for there is nothing supererogatory in the 
appointments of God. When the Lord instituted 
bread and wine to be the expressive memorials of 
incarnation, his death and sacrifice, and com- 
manded, "Do this in remembrance of me," what 
would be more natural than for the Apostles to 
have said, "Lord, do this in remembrance of me? 
Can we, Lord, ever forget thee — thee, who hast 
loved us as a mother loveth her own children — 
thee, who hast fed us all our life long — thee, who 
hast calmed the sea, and hushed the winds, and 
multiplied the loaves, and opened the springs, and 
poured peace into our hearts, and redeemed us 
and sanctified us, and made us like thee and thine 
own ? we never can forget thee. If we forget thee, 
let our right hand forget its cunning, and our 
tongue cleave to the roof of our mouth." Christ 
knew best ; he knows what is in man, and he who 
demands the worship in spirit and in truth knew 
that men would be prone to forget him, and that 
they would need that memento to remind them of 
him, and therefore he said, " This do in remem- 
brance of me," and " shew forth my death until I 
come again." It is thus, then, we see, how Christ 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 15 

sympathises with us, and ministers not to the pride 
that despises ordinances, nor to the carnality that 
idolizes them, but to our necessities. 

We must take care never to add, if possible, to 
the ordinances and appointments of Christ. He 
has appointed only two great sacraments, expres- 
sive, beautiful, and eloquent of him in the right 
light and in their proper use; we must add no k 
more. He saw that fewer would not do, and he, 
no doubt, saw as clearly that more were not re- 
quired. The imminent error — the error of the day 
— is, less contempt of ordinances than idolatry of 
ordinances. There can be scarcely a greater un- 
faithfulness than to take the ordinance which 
Christ has appointed to lead us to him, and to 
make it a substitute for him. He has instituted 
the Lord's supper as a memento of him, not as a 
substitute for him, and whenever one is so taken 
up with the outward ceremony, so charmed with 
the splendour of the rite, so fascinated with the 
form, or the accompaniments of it, that it comes 
to occupy the main place, then are we on wrong 
ground, we are upon the verge of danger, it is 
time to retrace our steps, and seek to make the 
ordinance not a substitute for the Lord of the 
ordinance, but only a help to reach him — a tele- 
scope through which to see him more distinctly, 
and so behold " the King in his beauty, and the 
land also which is very far off." Where the ordi- 
nance is abused, and made a substitute for him, 
instead of being done in remembrance of Christ ; 



16 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

it that ordinance could become animate and vocal, 
and speak forth its sense of desecration, it would 
say, as one said of old ; " Am I a god, to kill and 
to make alive, that this man doth send to me?" 
Thus the system of putting baptism in the place 
of the Holy Spirit, and saying every baptized per- 
son is regenerate; and the Lord's supper in the 
room of Christ, and saying the bread becomes his 
very flesh, and the wine his very blood, is not only 
the essence, but the very form of Romanism itself; 
it is making the sacrament "sit in the temple of 
God, and say that it is God." God, then, has 
given us the ordinances, not to be substitutes for 
him, but to be means that enable us the better 
to remember him, the more clearly and distinctly 
to know him, the more gloriously and spiritually 
to come into communion with him. One class 
comes like Aaron of old, taking the gold, beautiful 
in its place in the sanctuary, and melting it into an 
idol ; another party, shocked at the terrible idol- 
atry, comes to avenge the wrong that has been 
done, and grinds it to powder, and scatters the 
dust upon the face of the waters of the earth. 
These are the two poles, as it were, of the ecclesias- 
tical system, the one party making gods of the ordi- 
nances, the other party grinding them to dust and 
trampling them under foot. But there is the true 
party, consisting of true worshippers; they that 
give the ordinance the ordinance's place, and to 
the Lord of the ordinance the exclusive supremacy 
that belongs only to him. 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 17 

Let me now mention some of those ordinances 
to which we are to apply this test of using them in 
spirit and in truth. The Bible, and the reading of 
the Bible, is a great ordinance of God. It is a 
great fact, that there is nothing upon earth so like 
God, nothing near us that so embodies and deve- 
lopes the mind of God, as the Bible. And hence 
the only pictures of God that should be in churches 
are texts: the only pictures that were in the ancient 
churches, were fragments of the word of God. 
When I see a picture of Jesus, drawn even by the 
master painters of the w T orld, I see a man crucified ; 
so were martyrs ; but I do not see the inner and 
real agony of him that bore the sins of the world. 
I see there one bearing a cross, but I do not see 
him bearing on that cross the sins of mankind. 
But when I read that text, " God is love," I there 
read God himself, I there hear God ; the Bible is 
the portrait of Deity ; its promises, its precepts, its 
revelations, are all rays from his countenance, sen- 
timents from his heart; and hence our blessed Lord 
breathed out his inmost soul upon the cross, not in 
words coined for the occasion, but in the language 
of those Psalms which he had inspired by his Holy 
Spirit. Thus, we cannot value the Bible too highly, 
but we must not place it in the room of God. We 
cannot look at its instrumentality in enlightening 
our hearts, too strongly ; but the instant that we 
think that the Bible can sanctify us, or the reading 
of the Bible regenerate us without God's Holy 
Spirit, we pat the ordinance in the room of the 
17 b2 



18 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

Lord of the ordinance, and cease to use it "in spirit 
and in truth/' The preaching of the Word is truly 
important ; all of you have felt that the sermon 
read, however excellent or useful, is not equal in 
freshness and force to the sermon preached : there 
is a power in the latter which has evaporated from 
the former: and yet if you come to listen to a 
minister, and think that his preaching, or his talent, 
or his powers, are alone adeqnate to convert you, 
you put the man in the room of his Master, and 
you endanger j^our own soul. 

The Sabbath is another ordinance of God : we 
are to look upon it, and use it, and deal with it, 
also "in spirit and in truth." The Sabbath is not 
a new institution : it was not appointed at the giving 
of the law ; most persons think it is no older than 
the days of Moses ; but the very first word of the 
fourth commandment tells you it is much older; it 
does not say thou shalt take the seventh day out 
of the rest, and hallow it, but it says, "Remember 
the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." It is an old in- 
stitution, a thing of the past to be recollected, not 
an institution of the present that was then for the 
first time made ; and what makes the Sabbath in 
my mind so singularly obligatory and important is, 
that it is not like other things placed in the cere- 
monial law, but in the very heart and front of the 
moral law. It ceases, so placed, to be a mere cere- 
mony, and it becomes a great moral duty or ordi- 
nance : and it is to the Christian still more holy 
than to the Jew, for it has superadded to the recol- 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 19 

lection of God ceasing from his creating work, the 
hallowed recollection that God rose triumphant 
from redemption work, having made an end of sin, 
and brought in everlasting life ; and yet the Sab- 
bath is not to be regarded as some regard it, as a 
fasting day, — it is rather a feasting day ; it is a high 
and holy festival, and in ancient times — I do not 
say that there is anything to warrant it, it merely 
shows the sense then entertained of it — on week 
days, the early Christians knelt at prayer, but on 
Sabbath-day they always stood at prayer, the 
meaning of which they said w T as, that the Sabbath 
was always to be held a joyful day, and the recol- 
lection of the resurrection of the Lord, to be there- 
fore a kind of Easter Sabbath recurring every 
week, on which they were to be called to "go into 
God's courts with thanksgiving, and into his gates 
with praise ;" and therefore, while a Sabbath heart 
and a Sabbath countenance ought to be solemn, 
they ought not to be sad: for this day is a joyful 
day — it is the gem — "the pearl of days," the 
brightest, the most beautiful, the most happy of the 
seven. For a person therefore to say, I have kept 
the Sabbath because I have been to church in the 
morning, not only indicates a misconception of the 
requirements of the Sabbath, but of its very nature ; 
he looks upon it as a penance ; he has gone to 
church to do the penance that he thinks God 
exacts, and having done so much, however painful, 
he now thinks he may enjoy the remainder of the 
day as his ow T n. We are not to regard the Sabbath 



20 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

as a pain, but as a pleasure, as honourable, holy, 
beautiful ; and if there be one day in the week on 
which we should be happy, it is the Sabbath. 
" The Lord is risen," is the joyful sound — the sound 
that is in the chimes of all its bells, that ought to 
be in all its music, that ought to be in all the hearts 
of its worshippers ; and hence I believe that wher- 
ever there are right and true conceptions of evan- 
gelical religion, the Sabbath ceases to be a funeral 
day, as it is sometimes made, and comes to be a 
holy festival day, as the first Christians made it. 

Another ordinance is prayer, which also is to be 
"in spirit and in truth." How many misconcep- 
tions are there on the subject of prayer ! Many 
pray because their consciences drive them to it, 
and they would feel uncomfortable if they did not. 
Others pray as a sort of expiation, which God will 
receive on account of their sins. But this is not 
the nature of prayer. Others, again, have the idea 
that they are drawing near to an angry and aveng- 
ing Being, and that they must hold up their hands, 
and deprecate, as it were, the shooting forth of the 
bolts of his vengeance. They go to God with a 
constant feeling that he is ready to crush them, and 
that they must do all they can to keep off the out- 
pouring of his vengeance, which is ever ready and 
ever accumulating, as they think, to fall upon 
them, and hence they crouch in prayer, and trem- 
ble like criminals in the clock before a judge. This 
is not prayer. God hath " sent into our hearts the 
Spirit of his Son, crying Abba Father:" we draw 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 21 

near to God in true prayer, when we say, " Our 
Father." How does your child come to you? with 
an elastic footstep and a bounding heart, welcom- 
ing the father's voice as the sweetest music in the 
hall, and loving the father's knee as a better seat 
than a monarch's throne. And so should we draw 
near to God : He is in Christ our Father. " Our 
Father" — all the affection that the best of children 
feels to the best of fathers, magnified and multi- 
plied a thousand-fold, is the feeling with which we 
ought to draw near to God ; and yet most men, 
when they think of God, are not merely solem- 
nized, as they ought to be, but they are sad, they 
are terrified. Their impression is that religion is a 
good thing when we come to die, just as a very 
nauseous dose of medicine may be when we are 
ill ; that it is an excellent thing at funerals, and 
they may tolerate it even at bridals ; but as to 
having religion to make us happy, they think it is 
like bringing the picture of disease, or death, or 
the grave, to a wedding. What grievous miscon- 
ception is this ! The Gospel is the good news, it is 
the Gospel : Christianity is good news. And what 
are the news ? That God is in Christ reconciling 
the world unto himself, no more wishing to treat 
you as criminals, but to receive you as children, 
and to forget your sins, and welcome you to his 
bosom cordially : and as such you are to draw near 
to him, and seek blessings from him. The bless- 
ings we obtain not in answer to prayer are too 
generally wasted, but the blessings we receive in 
17* 



22 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

answer to prayer are generally rendered back to 
God in adoration, thanksgiving, and praise. Han- 
nah prayed for a son ; she obtained Samuel, and 
she lent him to the Lord ; what prayer receives, 
praise offers. I believe that none of us have a 
high enough idea of prayer ; it is nor words, nor 
length, nor liturgy, nor form, nor rubric, but the 
cry of a broken heart, — the sigh of an humble 
spirit, — the " God be merciful to me a sinner/' 
when no ear hears but God, and no eye can see 
the throbbing of the heart but the Searcher of all 
hearts — this is prayer. Many say prayers who 
never pray ; many pray who do not often say 
prayers. It is the heart that prays : all else is sub- 
sidiary, circumstantial, non-essential. 

So again, Baptism is an ordinance of God, and 
a very precious one : it is to be administered, it is 
to be regarded, it is to be used also " in spirit and 
in truth." But it is not a mere sign ; it is more, it 
is admission into God's visible church, a great and 
important institution. It is planting in the field 
that contains both tares and wheat ; it is bringing 
the individual within the reach of means the most 
mighty, of opportunities the most precious; of 
responsibilities the most solemn; but it is not 
more : it is not regeneration ; it is a deadly error 
to say so ; it is a miserable fallacy in any one to 
conclude that it is so, because the moment we get 
a right idea of the depth of man's fall, that moment 
we see that all ordinances are too short to reach 
down to him, and too weak to bring him up again 



LAW AND LIMIT OF ORDINANCES. 23 

to the light of day ; we see at once that in order to 
retrieve man from the depth of his ruin, there must 
be put forth an omnipotent arm, that arm the ex- 
ponent of omnipotent love. And thus baptism, 
whatever it may signify, whatever it may seal, is 
not the Holy Spirit ; it cannot do the Holy Spirit's 
work, it never did do it, it never will do it, and the 
moment it is made to shine with one ray taken 
from the glory of God, it becomes a curse to him 
that administers- it, and no blessing to him that 
receives it. 



24 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



THE INSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNION. 

Thy body broken for my sake, 
My bread from heaven shall be ; 

Thy testamental cup I take, 
And thus remember thee. 

At every stage of the dispensation of the Gospel, 
from the fall to the close of the sacred canon, there 
have been some outward signs or symbols expres- 
sive of great evangelical truths. These are need- 
ful, not for God, but for us. Were we all intellect, 
we could do without them. Were we all sense, we 
could not rise above them. As we are, we use the 
symbol as a stepping-stone to a higher platform 
and a wider horizon, from which we may see truth 
more clearly and fully. The Socinian or Sceptic 
would renounce them. The Romanist would wor- 
ship them. The former would evaporate the Lord's 
supper into a metaphor, the latter would condense 
it into an idol; the Christian observes it as the 
institution of God, and through it apprehends Him 
more closely. He neither neglects it as a superero- 
gation, nor trusts in it as an exorcism. He will 
not turn its gold into an idol, nor will he grind it 
to powder, and scatter it to the four ends of the 
earth. 



INSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNION. 25 

The simple record of the Lord's supper is con- 
tained in Matt. xxvi. 26 — 30. " And as they were 
eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake 
it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat ; 
this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave 
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all 
of it : for this is my blood of the new testament, 
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of 
this fruit of the vine, until that day w T hen I drink 
it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And 
when they had sung an hymn, they went out unto 
the Mount of Olives." 

Here w y e have a holy and beautiful scene. The 
last moments of the Saviour's life upon earth were 
spent like his precious blood, in sacrifice. Like all 
he did and endured, his last evening, like his last 
moment, was vicarious. His last thoughts, like 
his thoughts in eternity, were consecrated to us. 

He had just finished the Passover supper, of the 
significancy of which we will afterwards wTite. He 
desired to make the departure of one ancient rite 
the occasion of the institution of one simpler, 
sublimer, and more enduring. Accordingly, he 
took a portion of the bread of which they had just 
been partaking. He implored a blessing, and gave 
thanks over the bread, thus separated to a sacred 
and evangelical use, and thereby instituted this a 
perpetual commemorative feast. He brake it — the 
symbol of his bruised and broken body. He gave 
it to his disciples, as he gave his life for them all, 

c 



26 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

and reminded them that this bread, thus blessed 
and broken, should be received by them, and all 
that should believe on him through their word, as 
a silent yet vivid and eloquent memorial of his 
incarnation, and sacrifice, and death. 

Next he took the cup of wine, used at the Pas- 
chal supper, and desired them all to drink of it as 
the memorial of that precious blood which alone 
cleanseth from all sin ; that blood which w T as shed 
for its remission, that life which was sacrificed that 
we might live. In that blood or sacrifice, an eter- 
nal yet new covenant w r as sealed, as all ancient 
covenants among men were ratified over slain and 
sacrificed animals. 

He did not join such a communion again on 
earth; but he drinks the fruits, and joys, and feli- 
city it secured and sealed and signified, with his 
saved and glorified ones now in heaven, within the 
precincts of his Father's kingdom. 

The Lord and his little company of communi- 
cants then "hymned" — that is, praised and sang 
together. No doubt they chanted, for that was the 
Jewish practice, a portion of the 113, 114, 115, 
116, 117, and 118th Psalms, all of which were the 
hymns employed at the celebration of the Passover. 

Such is the inspired history of the circumstances, 
ceremony, and celebration of this holy ordinance. 
How unlike the rubrics of the Roman Missal, are 
these the rites of the Last Supper ! Leonardo da 
Vinci, and the painters of the Church of Pome, 
give far more scriptural representations of it than 



INSTITUTION OF THE OOMMTTOION. 27 

her Pontiffs, Bishops, and Priests. In the words 
of the Evangelists, however, we have a standard 
which tradition has superseded, and superstition 
overlaid, but which none have dared to deny or 
dispute. 

We turn to the eleventh chapter of the first 
epistle to the Corinthians, for a fuller exposition 
of its meaning. Truths briefly enunciated in the 
Gospels, are often developed more fully in the 
Epistles. In these last, the Spirit takes of the 
things of Jesus, and shows them unto us. The 
historical is embosomed more fully in the doctrinal. 
The facts recorded by the Evangelist are set forth 
by the Apostle, as the luminous nuclei of precious 
truths. What is set forth in the Gospels directly, 
is in the Epistles treated controversially, from its 
being in reply to some question, or for the correc- 
tion of some abuse, or for the settlement of some 
dispute. 

In 1 Cor. xi. 23, Paul thus writes : " For I have 
received of the Lord, that which also I delivered 
unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night that 
he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had 
given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat, this 
is my body which is broken for you ; this do in 
remembrance of me. After the same manner also 
he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This 
is the new testament in my blood ; this do ye as 
oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me ; for as 
often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye 
do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, 



28 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

whosoever shall eat this blood, and drink this cup 
of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body 
and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine 
himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink 
of that cup ; for he that eateth and drinketh un- 
worthily, eateth and drinketh (xp/j&a, judgment) 
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's 
body. For this cause, many are weak and sickly 
among you, and many sleep ; for if we would 
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But 
when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, 
that we should not be condemned with the world." 

The special sin of the Corinthians, was their 
rising the bread and wine at the table of the Lord, 
as if it were a common meal, or rather a heathen 
festival. They satisfied their hunger with the one, 
and drank to excess of the other, w Biaxphw, not 
discerning, not discriminating the Lord's body, not 
making the distinction that ought to be between a 
common meal, and this holy communion feast. It 
is true now that irreverent and thoughtless partici- 
pation of the Lord's supper, without knowledge, 
love, faith, repentance, is sinful in the sight of God. 
But it is not likely that this specific Corinthian sin 
will be practised now. At all events, it is scarcely 
just to threaten the earnest, enlightened, believing, 
but timid Christian, with the chastisements and 
judgments inflicted on the Corinthians. Almost 
every expression used by the Apostle is emphatic, 
suggestive of tender and profitable reflections. 

" On the same night on which Jesus was betrayed" 



INSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNION. 29 

one would think his spirit must have been so heavy 
with the foreseen sufferings of the next day, that 
he could have thought of nothing else — but this 
very night — this deepening twilight of so dark a 
morrow — he consecrates to the instruction and 
comfort, not of his Apostles only, but of us. Self 
was sacrificed for us. Time, thought, sorrow, joy, 
all the blessed Saviour was, enjoyed and experi- 
enced, were laid upon the altar for us. 

"He took bread." Simplicity is eminently 
characteristic of the Gospel. For the celebration 
of so expressive a solemnity, he did not bid them 
bring up from the caves of the sea their buried 
gems — nor from the mines of the earth its hidden 
and precious ores — nor did he command the use 
of aught that was costly and uncommon, lest it 
should be supposed that outward splendour was 
needed, and adequate or adapted to express spiri- 
tual beauty, or that this feast was the exclusive 
privilege of the rich. He selected "our daily 
bread" to be the sign of "the living bread ;" and 
wine, in some shape all but indigenous to all lands, 
to be the sign of his most precious blood. 

These symbols are perhaps appropriate in them- 
selves, but it is his institution that makes them 
specially so. 

Had he enjoined any other rite, or form, or ser- 
vice — the scattering of flowers once a year on the 
floor of his sanctuary, or a visit to some spot desig- 
nated in his word, the obligation would have been 
the same, and the rite would have been no less 
18 g 2 



30 TUB COMMUNION TABLE. 

significant. It is the institution and blessing of 
Christ, that gives to this ordinance its excellence 
and preciousness. 

At a very early period, after the days of the 
Apostles, the simplicity of the Lord's supper began 
to disappear. Superstition — sensuous worship — 
semi- Jewish and semi-heathen prejudices began to 
cloud its beauty, and alter its apparent significance. 
While no such dogma as transubstantiation was 
known or believed during the first eight centuries, 
yet exaggerated statements, both on baptism and 
the Lord's supper, became very common. Justin 
Martyr, Ignatius, and Irenseus, from their anxiety 
to give it grandeur in the sight of the heathen, 
endeavoured to show that it was not xoivds apros ov8s 

xoivov tfo'jjia, common bread, but the (pappuxxov d0avafl7a£, 

the medicine of immortality, in which were virtues 
for soul and body. The Fathers also began to 
apply to it the expressions dutfla and tfpo&cpopa — sacri- 
fices, analogous to those of Levi ; and Cyprian 
went so far as to claim for it the character of a 
sacrifice, not repetitionary, as the Romanists claim, 
but imitative of that of Christ. 

In the ninth century, those highly figurative ex- 
pressions in which the Fathers had indulged, 
began to receive a literal interpretation. Pas- 
chasius Rhadbertus, abbot of Corbey, compressed 
the floating metaphors into the dogma of transub- 
stantiation ; and though faithful protests were 
lifted up against this monstrous error by Rabanus 
Maurus, and others, yet it grew amid surrounding 



INSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNION. 31 

darkness as in a congenial climate, till transub- 
stantiation received by name the sanction of the 
fourth Lateran Council in 1215, and thenceforth 
became the dictinctive doctrine of the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

This dogma wars against the testimony of four 
of the five senses ; contradicts and undermines the 
doctrine of the humanity of Jesus ; destroys the 
nature of a sacrament ; leads to the most revolting 
results ; lays the foundation of the so-called pro- 
pitiatory sacrifice of the Mass, the adoration of 
the host, and other doctrines foreign to the nature, 
truths, and express declarations of the word of 
God. Such is the corrupting energy of fallen man, 
that no truth has been proclaimed by the oracles 
of creation, or revealed in the page of Scripture, 
which he has not perverted. 

The fairest flowers have withered in his hand, or 
faded by his touch. He has turned the truth of 
God into falsehood, and the mystery of godliness 
into the mystery of iniquity, and the sublime but 
simple truths of Scriptural Christianity into the 
absurd and revolting dogmas of a deadly supersti- 
tion. 



32 THE COMMUNION TABLK. 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 

"Now when the even was come, he sat down with the 
twelve." — Matt. xxvi. 20. 

Gethsemane can I forget, 

Or there thy conflict see, 
Thine agony and bloody sweat, 

And not remember thee! 

The passage at the head of this chapter is the 
earliest account of the celebration of the Lord's 
supper. The language is extremely simple, and 
yet fully descriptive of its origin, its nature, and 
its end. "We naturally desire to know what were 
the last words of one we love ; we long to know 
what his last thoughts were, what his parting 
accents were, what subject, in short, occupied the 
largest share and the latest interest in his affections. 
We have all this told us of one who is a friend that 
sticketh closer than a brother. We have here the 
last words that he uttered previous to His crucifix- 
ion ; and the last and not the least important 
institution which He appointed and designed to 
commemorate his dying love. Here too we read 
the account of the treachery of one whose name is 
the synonyme for all that is hateful in human 
speech, and about whose doom we can have no 
doubt, for the Spirit of God has declared it. 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 33 

Our Lord evidently introduces an important 
statement, in the words recorded by Matthew, 
because he employs the prefatory words, " Verily, 
I say unto you." The word "verily" is the trans- 
lation throughout the Gospel of St. John of the 
word ccjul^v, or as we call it, Amen. Literally trans- 
lated the verse runs, " I, the Amen, say unto you, 
that one of you shall betray me," and it is by this 
translation that we connect it with the frequent 
description of himself in the Apocalypse, where he 
calls himself " The Amen, the Faithful and True 
"Witness." Whenever Jesus prefaces a statement 
with "Verily, verily," we may always be sure that 
the statement introduces sentiments of the greatest 
importance, or announces a statement accompanied 
by circumstances of peculiar pain, or at least 
emphasis. It is so here. He makes a painful 
announcement, as painful as it was unexpected, 
to the eleven who heard it, " Verily, I say unto 
you, that one of you shall betray me." This state- 
ment also involved the fact that Jesus contemplated 
his death as certain. His betrayal he intimates 
would be but the preface to his crucifixion. His 
disciples had scarcely become accustomed to this. 
They did not believe he was to die ; the last article 
they received into their creed was the prediction 
that Jesus was to die in the room and in the stead 
of sinners. We do not read, however, that upon 
this occasion they made the slightest objection to 
this intimation ; perhaps they had been taught this 
truth more fully, and their minds were made willing 
18* 



34 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

to receive whatever Jesus stated. There seems to 
be peculiar grief implied in these words, " Verily, 
I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." 
As if he had said, I could bear to have been 
betrayed by them that have ever been my foes ; 
I could bear to have been betrayed by those 
that have denounced and derided me as a male- 
factor and pretender ; I could bear to have been 
betrayed by those who are the confessed and 
professed enemies of all that is good and holy, 
beneficent and divine ; but to be betrayed by the 
recipient of my bounty, by one of those whom I 
have fostered as a mother her own; by one whom 
I have commissioned to exercise great functions, 
and clothed with great authority, and inspired with 
pure and heavenly sentiments — this I feel to be 
not the least painful element in that bitter cup 
which I have to drink for a world's transgression. 
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you 
shall betray me." And yet when one looks at it, 
it was not so much the pain of betrayal that he so 
much deprecated as the guilt of the person who 
should inflict it. " One of you shall betray me." 
It was not the ingratitude it displayed that he so 
much deplored, as that one of his own should be 
so far left to himself as to be guilty of so terrible 
a crime. There was nothing selfish in the Re- 
deemer's grief. It was not the wound that he 
grieved at, but the hand that should inflict it ; it 
was not what he should endure, but from whom he 
should endure it ; it was not his chief grief that 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 35 

Pilate should crucify him, but that a disciple 
should betray him. " One of you shall betray 
me." We cannot fail to see in this passage how 
great is the forbearance of our blessed Lord. He 
needed that Judas should develop his character ; he 
knew what it was ; nor that any should tell him, 
for he knew what was in man : and yet how 
wonderful is the quiet, the forbearance, the silence, 
with which Jesus witnessed the going out and 
coming in for three years of this man who was 
ever meditating and arranging to betray him. 
Surely there is here a striking precedent for us to 
imitate; and yet one that it is most difficult to 
imitate. When we see one whom we know to 
be an hyprocrite, our impatience is so great that 
we can scarcely restrain ourselves from instantly 
expressing our convictions ; and yet there may be 
the highest purity exhibited, and not the least 
deficiency in faithfulness in bearing, and patiently 
forbearing, until the time matures the character, 
and shows to the outward eye what the higher 
wisdom has made known to the inner man. Our 
Lord has set us the example of judging men, not 
by our suspicions or our construction, but by their 
deeds ; " by their fruits ye shall know them ;" and 
by the fruit that the tree produces you are to pro- 
nounce your verdict on the excellence or the bad- 
ness of the tree. As far as we can see from this 
passage, Judas was admitted to the Lord's table, 
and partook of the sacred festival. Some have 
come to a different conclusion : they have supposed 



36 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

that he retired at the close of the passover, and 
just before the elements were distributed. I doubt 
if this conclusion can be sustained by comparing 
the parallel passages of all the Gospels. I do not 
see that we gain anything by proving the contrary ; 
but if it be of course the fact, we are to state it, 
w T hether we gain or lose by it; but I do not see 
that we can gain anything, either for Christianity 
or for the Bible, if we needed it, or for the Church 
at large, by doubting or denying what seems indis- 
putable. Those at a communion table are just like 
those who stand at the baptismal font, or who 
make profession of the truths of the everlasting 
Gospel — a mixed body. The visible Church is not 
to be in this dispensation co-extensive with the 
spiritual and the true Church. The tares and the 
wheat are so mingled together, that if men at- 
tempted to separate they are sure to do mischief; 
our Lord did not weed the first communion. At 
the judgment-day the tares shall be collected and 
cast into the fire, and the wheat shall be gathered 
into the garners of heaven. Let us not confound 
the present with the age to come. The visible 
Church is not a perfect Church. There was a 
Judas at the first communion table, there was one 
tare among the eleven wheat, and it will be so still. 
There is no Church so pure that it has no alloy, 
there is no communion table spread, from the east 
to the west, that is surrounded wholly and ex- 
clusively by regenerated men. Judas was among 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 37 

the twelve; the tares are among the wheat; all 
are not Israelites that are of Israel. 

The word " supper/' which is used by the Evan- 
gelist to denote the communion, was among the 
ancients the principal meal. It held the place of 
the modern dinner ; it w^as taken late in the day, 
about eight in the evening. It was understood to 
be what is called the most confidential meal, when 
friends were admitted to share the hospitalities of 
the house, and all were treated as on a footing of 
equality, and one unbosomed his sentiments to 
another, and all felt that they were friends or bre- 
thren. Our Lord appointed his communion at this 
time, that the idea of confidence, of mutual love 
and reciprocal attachment, might predominate in 
the minds of his followers, and that this act might 
vividly teach them that they are brethren who meet 
there ; that they approach their Elder Brother at 
their heavenly Father's board ; that they are com- 
mon heirs of a coming glory, the near and dear 
inmates of a common home, and the followers of 
their common Lord, "who loved them, and gave 
himself for them." I cannot but notice that when 
our Lord revealed the fact at this confidential 
gathering, that one of them should betray him, he 
does so in the presence of the party who should be 
guilty of that offence. The best and the Christian 
way to tell a brother his faults, is not to do so 
behind his back; it then comes to be calumny, 
even if it should be true ; when done before his 
face, in a spirit of faithfulness and love, it is a 

D 



38 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

Christian duty, and there will descend upon it a 
Christian blessing. As soon as the disciples heard 
that one of them should betray him, they did not 
dispute it; they accepted the prophecy, however 
painful the fact. " They were exceeding sorrow- 
ful." One would have supposed they would have 
thought such a thing impossible ; they did, I have 
no doubt, think it all but impossible, but they had 
confidence in Christ; they had learned to place 
implicit reliance on his word : one statement from 
the lips of Jesus outweighed a thousand impossi- 
bilities. They believed it was true, too true, and 
they were only anxious to know who was the man 
who could be guilty of so enormous an offence. 
Their anxiety to know the man, was only equalled 
by their sorrow at the crime. "They were exceed- 
ing sorrowful." No wonder that they were so. 
His life had been to them a shower of daily bless- 
ings ; they had tasted their sweetest happiness in 
the sunshine of his countenance : whatever peace 
they realized — whatever instruction they had 
gathered — whatever bright hopes of coming glory 
they cherished, had been all instilled from his lips, 
and they felt it to be the sorest fact they had heard 
from his mouth, that one of them, so deeply in- 
debted to his love, and so richly provided for by 
his beneficence, should be guilty of the great crime 
of betraying their Lord and Master. Sorrowful at 
the prophecy, they felt anxious to know who should 
fulfil it; they began every one of them to say, 
"Lord, is it I?" See here, what distrust of self! 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 39 

Each disciple did not begin to say, "Lord, is it 
John ? Lord, is it Peter? Lord, is it Matthew?" 
but each disciple, looking into his own heart, and 
fearing lest the seed of so great a crime should 
lurk in it, put the question, "Lord, is it I?" Yet 
is not this the very last question we are apt to put? 
Are we not more ready and willing to detect and 
discuss the sins of a brother, than to analyse our 
own hearts, and trace out our own sentiments? 
But the way to make practical and personal im- 
provement, is to look little at a brother, to look 
exclusively to ourselves. The last that suspected 
himself was Judas : after each disciple had said, 
"Lord, is it I?" we read in a subsequent verse, 
that Judas, when he could scarcely conceal himself 
any longer, said, "Master, is it I?" The first to 
suspect themselves were the innocent; the last to 
suspect himself was the guilty one. His plans 
were not yet matured, or perhaps his intentions 
were not yet fully developed, or perhaps he was 
not yet prepared for so revolting and monstrous an 
expression of baseness and of ingratitude ; but 
whatever was his condition at that moment, the 
last to suspect was the guilty one, the first to dis- 
trust their own standing and firmness were the 
innocent. Does not this teach us that he who 
comes to this table, not doubting his Lord's love, 
but his own unworthiness of it, is the person who 
is most welcome ; and he who comes, not suspect- 
ing Christ's faithfulness, but suspecting his own 
strength, is just he who is in the best spirit, and 



40 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

will receive there the greatest blessing ? The evi- 
dence that we are not the children of God, is our 
never suspecting or doubting our worthiness of his 
love, or our fitness for fellowship with him : the 
evidence rather, that we are among the people of 
God, and that our hearts have been quickened by 
Divine love, is the fact that we suspect, not the 
faithfulness or the love of Jesus, or the excellence 
and beauty of his example, but our worthiness 
of the one, and our steadfastness in imitating the 
other. 

After our Lord had thus disposed of all that was 
painful by making this prefatory remark, or rather 
by carrying on this prefatory conversation on the 
guilt of him who should betray him, we read, that 
as they were eating the passover, " he took bread, 
and blessed, and brake it, saying, Take, eat ; this 
is my body that is broken for you. And he took 
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, 
saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of 
the new testament, which is shed for many for the 
remission of sins. ,, Let any one take up the book 
known by the name of the Roman Catholic Missal, 
t. <?., the prayer-book used by the members of the 
Roman Catholic Church. Let him read the rubrics 
contained in that book, and spread over some 
eighty, ninety, or a hundred pages — especially the 
strange and grotesque ceremonial — what the priest 
is to do, and to say, and how he is to robe himself, 
and when he is to perform the great act which is 
the distinctive characteristic of the sacrifice of the 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 41 

mass — and when he has done so, let him read the 
beautiful and simple words of the last supper, and 
then ask if the rite in the Missal has any likeness 
to the institution in the New Testament ; or if the 
one be in any sense the substance of the other? 
If the account in the Missal be the Lord's supper, 
the statement in the Gospel of Saint Matthew must 
be something else. The two institutions are not 
the same; the one is a beautiful festival, expressive 
of mutual love, and joyful and grateful confidence, 
appointed to commemorate the greatest fact ; the 
other pretends to be a stupendous sacrifice, an 
awful mystery, clothed in words new to a Chris- 
tian, and perfectly different, in its minutest details, 
and leading characteristics, from anything that we 
find in any of the Gospels, or even in the works of 
early writers, or in the usages of the primitive 
Christians. 

Why, it may be asked, did our Lord take 
" bread ?" There is no more spiritual virtue in 
bread than there is in a stone, in a tree, in a flower. 
Its commonness was perhaps the chief reason. It 
is that which the richest must have, and which the 
poorest generally can have — that which is in all 
countries accessible at all times : it is the simplest, 
and purest, and most universal element that man 
employs for the nutriment of his body, and it may 
be regarded as the most expressive symbol of the 
bread of life. He might, if it had so pleased him, 
have prescribed the annual collection and display 
of certain precious gems, or the placing on the 
19 d 2 



42 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

communion table of some fragrant exotic flowers, 
the most beautiful and costly, and either rite would 
still have conveyed the great ends for which the 
institution was appointed, and have constituted as 
expressly, if not equally, a commemoration of his 
dying love : but he has selected bread, and like all 
God's institutions, its sublimity consists in its sim- 
plicity. He took bread, and that bread he blessed, 
or, as it is expressed in another Gospel, "He gave 
thanks." He thanked God for all his covenant 
mercies, for his love, for his faithfulness, for what 
he had done, for what he had promised to do. 
He then "brake it," thus to denote his body 
broken for us, and he gave it to the disciples, those 
that were seated, or reclining round him, saying, 
"Take, eat; this is my body:" that is plainly, 
merely the symbol, the representation in every age 
in which it shall be celebrated, of my incarnation, 
or my being manifest in the flesh; and he took 
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, 
saying, "Drink ye all of it." It is remarkable 
that the word " all" is here introduced. "Why is it 
so ? Because, with prophetic eye, he saw that in 
the lapse of ages men, professing to be ministers 
of the Gospel, would withdraw the cup from the 
people, and tell them it was the Lord's supper, 
though there was no cup to accompany it. He 
therefore says in the one instance, "Take, eat; 
this is my body;" in the other he introduces a 
word omitted in the first, and says, "Drink ye all 
of it:" it is proof evident to all, that no man has 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 43 

a right to take away that cup which the Lord him- 
self has appointed. "For this is my blood, which 
was shed for many for the remission of sins." He 
conveys the nature of his death in these words, 
"for the remission of sins." The death of Jesus 
was not the example of the faithfulness of a mar- 
tyr, but a sacrifice, an oblation for the remission 
of sins. He shows what he considered the nature 1 * 
of the cup to be, calling it after the consecration, 
the fruit of the vine. "I will not drink of this 
fruit of the vine, till I drink it new with you in 
my Father's kingdom," referring probably to the 
kingdom set up and spread through the world after 
the day of Pentecost — that kingdom whose subjects 
are saints, and whose elements are "neither meat 
nor drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in 
the Holy Ghost." And then it is recorded, when 
they had sung an hymn, expressive of their grati- 
tude, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 

Let me now notice the names by which this in- 
stitution has been usually known. It is called 
sometimes the sacrament, that is, perhaps, a mis- 
nomer; it is not the sacrament, but a sacrament. 
There are two sacraments in the New Testament 
economy, — Baptism, and the Lord's Supper; and 
to call it the sacrament is to miscall it. It is one 
of the two sacraments. This word is derived from 
" Sacramentum," the oath of faithfulness that a 
soldier took to his captain, or of allegiance which 
a subject took to his king. It is thus implied, in 
calling this institution a sacrament, that in parti- 



44 THE COMMUNION TA13XE. 

cipating in it we solemnly swear allegiance to him 
— devotedness to his service, — and be ashamed of 
Christ who may, that we will not — and deny him 
who likes, that we shall glory in his cross — and 
disobey his commandments who will, we will keep 
them, and give currency to them. 

It is also called the Eucharist. The meaning of 
the word eucharist is thanksgiving ; it is derived 
from a Greek word, suxupHtnoi, which means thanks- 
giving as expressive of gratitude. It is appropri- 
ately called the eucharist, because it is in this rite 
that we publicly express our gratitude to God for 
temporal, persona], and social mercies, as well as 
for spiritual and everlasting blessings — purchased 
by the blood, ensured in the promises, and be- 
stowed upon us day by day in the name, and 
through the mediation of Christ Jesus. The name 
of this sacrament implies the feeling with which 
we ought to approach it. The feelings we ought 
to cherish, are those of the intensest gratitude; 
and if there be one spot in the Christian Church, 
at which there ought ever to be bounding hearts 
and happy faces, it is when we surround the com- 
munion table, and commemorate a love so rich 
that it never faltered, but ascended the cross, and 
died for us there, and rose again to the throne to 
plead for us. It is the hour for review of facts 
and blessings — for retrospect of all the way — for 
recalling how much each owes to his Lord — for 
meditating how much he has bequeathed to us. In 
the ancient passover, there were two great parts ; 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 45 

there was, first of all, the painful part, which was 
the killing of an inoffensive lamb, the shedding of 
its blood, the taking away of its life ; then, subse- 
quent to this act, which was the sacrificial or the 
painful act, was the eating of its flesh, after it had 
been roasted, by all the inmates of the house, and 
so, commemorating the deliverance of the first- 
born through the blood of the lamb, slain and 
sprinkled on the lintels. Thus the Israelites had 
two parts in that commemoration ; first, the pain- 
ful part, or the killing of the lamb ; secondly, the 
pleasant part, or the feasting on its flesh. Now 
Christ took to himself all the painful part when he 
offered himself a sacrifice upon the cross, and he 
has bequeathed to us only the pleasant part, the 
feast after the sacrifice, the pleasure after the pain, 
the grateful commemoration of his finished sacri- 
fice; and therefore gratitude, not grief, becomes 
us. We are called upon to enjoy the pleasure, 
Christ having himself exhausted all the pain. The 
supper is the great eucharistic festival. It is with 
feelings and emotions of the warmest gratitude 
that we ought to draw near to that table, to take 
into our hand the memorials of his broken body, 
and of his shed blood. It is also called an ordi- 
nance, but an ordinance in common with prayer, 
and praise, and preaching. It is a misnomer to 
call it the ordinance ; there are many ordinances in 
the Christian Church, and it is only one, though 
not the least important of them all. 
19* 



46 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

It is also called the Communion. The meaning 
of this word is fellowship, intermingling together; 
and it implies, that when we surround that table, 
we cease to present ourselves in any of those capa- 
cities by which we are distinguished in civil life, 
and present ourselves simply as followers of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, holding communion and fellow- 
ship with him, and in him with each other. The 
Lord's table is that sacred spot, at which all eccle- 
siastical distinctions, all sectarian disputes, all 
social and political differences, all that makes us 
differ from one another, should be merged and 
buried in the joyful sense of common gratitude, 
and in the dear and delightful reciprocities of com- 
mon brotherhood, — by which we are bound each 
to the other, and all to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Hence, when one is invited to come to the com- 
munion table, let it be recollected that it is not to 
join in an ecclesiastical communion, as some sup- 
pose, but it is to commemorate the Redeemer's 
death. Nor is it to come as churchmen or dis- 
senters, but simply as Christians. There is no 
record in that first institution, of any other dis- 
tinction known, recognised, or admitted there, 
except of those that were the chiefest of siuners 
by nature, brought to be the greatest of saints by 
grace. 

We may draw near to that table, then, as to a 
gracious festival, a joyful commemoration; as to a 
scene in which gratitude is to be the predominating 



THE FIRST COMMUNION. 47 

feeling, and yet with that deep humility which 
ought never to be absent from the mind of one 
who recollects his sins, — how many ! his unwor- 
thiness, how great ! Christ's love, how real, and 
the forgiveness that he has extended, how rich, 
and sovereign, and undeserved ! 



48 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



THE SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 

" For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do 
shew the Lord's death till he come." — 1 Cor. xi. 26. 

When to the cross I turn mine eyes, 

And rest on Calvary, 
Lamb of God, my sacrifice, 

I must remember thee ! 

Let us notice, first, the origin of the ordinance. 
It is not a ceremony instituted by man, but a 
sacrament appointed, prescribed, and authorized by 
God himself. The ecclesiastical officers of the 
Church may appoint a ceremony, the Lord of the 
Church alone may institute a sacrament. The two 
he has been pleased to institute are Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper. There is no other rite in the 
Church entitled to the name of a sacrament, or so 
obligatory upon us that to neglect it is a sin, and 
to observe it is a duty. The Apostle therefore 
states, "I received of the Lord." This rite is of 
heavenly origin. It bears the imprimatur of the 
King; it has the authority of him who alone is 
the Lord of the conscience, the head of his true, 
and redeemed, and blood-bought Church, and 
competent to appoint those rites and institutions 
which are conducive to its progress in grace and 
in holiness. " That which also I delivered unto 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 49 

you, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in 
which he was betrayed, took bread." The time 
and circumstances in which Christ instituted the 
sacrament are alone evidence that Christ was more 
than man. Had he been mere mau, he would 
have been so absorbed with thoughts of what 
awaited him on the morrow, that he would have 
had no feeling at his disposal, or sympathy to spare 
for others ; every thought, and care, and anxiety 
would have been concentrated on himself, full 
of the nearing sorrow, heavy with anticipated woe. 
But Christ was divine, and though divine a sufferer, 
and that for us. He sacrificed himself that his 
Church might be saved. "He took bread." I 
have showed why bread was chosen : not because 
there w T as any spiritual virtue in bread, more than 
in a flower or in a stone; he took bread as the 
most common thing, that which the rich must have, 
and which the poor may have. He might have 
used some other formula ; he might have appointed 
us to go in public procession once a year to a fixed 
place ; he might have commanded us to read a 
certain chapter, or to worship in a certain attitude, 
or to comply with some particular form ; all or 
any of these would have been the same as this 
sacrament, if he had been pleased so to consecrate 
them ; but he preferred this : he took bread, the 
simplest thing, the most universal thing, so that 
the poorest congregation may celebrate this rite as 
well as the richest. "And when he had given 
thanks :" an act which is the origin of " the eticha- 

E 



50 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

net, 1 -' the name applied to the Lord's supper. "He 
brake it," to denote that his body was broken for 
us. "He said, Take, eat;" not, look at it; as if 
we had no personal interest in it. Angels look 
and wonder, but neither take nor taste ; but to us 
he says, " Take," for you it is intended ; " eat it," 
appropriate it to yourselves. " This is my body" 
— the symbol — the memorial of it — "which is 
broken for you; this do in remembrance of me." 
Some have put an interpretation on the words " in 
remembrance of me," rather different from the 
common one ; some argue that it means, not " in 
remembrance of Christ," that is, to bring Christ 
vividly before our minds, but that it means "to 
put Christ in remembrance " of our wants, our 
necessities, his promises, his ability to save. I do 
not see there is any objection to this interpretation 
of the words, though I do not think that they strictly 
bear it, and if so the celebration of the Lord's 
supper would be not only a memorial of an absent 
Christ, absent in the body, but present in spirit, 
but it would be an act upon our part which is 
meant and designed, if this interpretation be cor- 
rect, to remind Christ of all his promises and 
pledges to us. You ask, perhaps, does it not 
seem strange and unusual language, " to put Christ 
in mind of us?" It is so, but it is nevertheless 
Scriptural language. God himself says, " Put me 
in remembrance ;" it is the description of the things 
of heaven adapted to the comprehension of the 
inhabitants of earth ; and therefore, though strange 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 51 

to us when first heard, it is neither unscriptural 
nor inconsistent with what God says to us. Still 
the all but universal interpretation has been what 
I confess seems to be the most natural one, namely, 
that it is a memorial of Christ; and is meant 
vividly to bring before us him whom the heavens 
must contain till the restitution of all things. I 
do not waste your time by entering on a doctrine 
which has been spread far and wide, monstrous 
and absurd as it is, called the doctrine of transub- 
stantiation. I merely notice one single fact which 
seems to me to lie on the very face of the verse, 
and to furnish a complete extinction to that absurd 
and extravagant dogma. It is the w r ords "in re- 
membrance of me." Now memory relates to the 
past, we cannot be said to recollect a person who 
is present ; we see him ; but when w T e take this in 
remembrance of Christ, it implies that he is bodily 
absent. But if the doctrine of the Church of 
Eome be a true one, he is bodily present upon the 
altar to which the communicant approaches, and 
therefore the language " in remembrance of" is in- 
applicable to the ceremony as it is performed in 
the Eoman Catholic Church, They have merged 
the precious sacrament which Christ has instituted 
in the pretended sacrifice which the priest has con- 
jured up. The Church of Eome says it is both a 
sacrament and a sacrifice, which, however, cannot 
be : a sacrament is something that God gives to 
us, a sacrifice is something that we offer to God ; 
if it be a sacrament it cannot be a sacrifice, if it 



52 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

be a sacrifice it cannot be a sacrament. Let the 
Church of Rome take her choice ; if she has a 
sacrifice she has what we can prove to be a pre- 
tended one, and no sacrament ; if she has a sacra- 
ment she has a mutilated one at best, but cannot 
have a sacrifice. 

" After the same manner also he took the cup, 
when he had supped." He thus took what was 
used in the now departing economy of Levi, the 
passover sacrifice, making it to answer for the new 
and glorious economy of the Gospel. " This cup 
is the new testament in my blood." How absurd 
would it be to render this literally ! yet if you 
insist that the words "this is my body" are to be 
interpreted literally, you must also, in all fairness, 
hold that " this cup is the new testament in my 
blood" must be literally interpreted also, and the 
result of consistency in such interpretation will be 
the best disproof, endless absurdity and extrava- 
gance. " This do in remembrance of me." Our 
Lord said respecting the cup, to his Apostles, 
"Drink ye all of it;" as if the words were pro- 
phetic, implying that whilst his command was so 
explicit, and our right to the cup so distinct, there 
would arise a party in the visible Church of Christ 
who would take away that portion of the beautiful 
solemnity, and render the other half the tradition 
of men, not the truth of God. " As often," he 
says, " as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye 
do shew the Lord's death until he come." These 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 53 

words comprehend the chief scope and design of 
the communion. 

I believe that we associate in our minds with the 
Lord's supper, partly from early prejudice, partly 
from remaining Popery, partly from the popery 
indigenous to our very nature, and partly from 
many sermons addressed to us, ideas that are wholly 
foreign to this beautiful and hallowed solemnity. 
Many persons look upon it as if it were some awful 
and tremendous sacrifice, to draw near to which is to 
run the risk of everlasting perdition. Some think 
that God is there in the attitude of a judge, watch- 
ing for the least faltering in the communicant in 
order to destroy him, rather than as a father wait- 
ing to receive and welcome even his weakest and 
most wavering child, freely to forgive him and 
heartily to embrace him : I believe that this has 
arisen, in some degree, from the infrequency of the 
celebration of it. In not a few of the country 
parishes of Scotland, it is celebrated only once a 
year : there may be difficulties in the way of the 
frequent celebration of it, in remote Highland 
parishes, but surely it might be oftener than this : 
the celebration of it once in the year only seems to 
me to be one of the very reasons why it has come to 
be looked upon something in the light of a Romish 
mass, rather than in that of a Christian and evan- 
gelical solemnity. I am quite sure that the early 
Christians celebrated it frequently ; I do not say 
every Sabbath, because they were not able, in their 
circumstances, to meet together every Sabbath, but 
20 e 2 



54 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

I am all but certain that they celebrated it almost 
every Sabbath on which they could assemble 
together for public worship ; we have records of 
its celebration in dens and caves of the earth, in 
subterranean recesses and catacombs, about Rome ; 
and it has been remarked, by an ancient Father 
of the Church, that when the Church ceased to 
have wooden platters, and earthenware cups, and 
upper rooms, and had gold and silver communion- 
plate, and grand cathedrals, her spirituality seemed 
to have departed from her. In proportion as she 
became rich, in the same proportion she became 
cold, and unspiritual, and worldly, and carnal. 

The special end of celebrating this solemnity is 
"to shew forth the Lord's death." "When you 
come to that table, it is not to join a church. I 
have heard persons say, "I mean to join the 
Church." They ought to have joined it before. 
Baptism is our introduction to the visible Church ; 
the Lord's supper is the sign or seal of our con- 
tinued standing as members of that visible Church. 
We become members of the visible Church by 
baptism, not by the Lord's supper ; and therefore 
to come to the Lord's supper in order to join a 
church, or to attach ourselves to a sect, is not to 
celebrate the Lord's supper according to Christ's 
appointment. "As often as ye eat this bread and 
drink this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's death ;" 
not your sympathy with a sect, nor your approval 
of one ceremony or preference for another. The 
true communicant comes to show forth the Lord's 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 55 

death. This is the great end ; but it may naturally 
be asked, is any truth symbolized in this ? surely 
something great must be meant that needs such a 
solemnity to embody it. It cannot be merely an 
ordinary death that we celebrate, nor surely can it 
be a mere commemorative rite which the Lord 
himself thought proper to institute in so solemn 
circumstances. The word " shew forth," I may 
explain, literally translated, is " evangelize, " or 
" preach;" and it means that just as truly as the 
minister by words in the pulpit, the communicant, 
by his approach to that table, preaches, proclaims, 
announces the Lord's death. That is to s&y, he 
proclaims to all that witness that act, that he looks 
to Christ's death as the greatest, and most import- 
ant, and most precious fact in the history of the 
universe, and that all should listen, study, be inte- 
rested in, and be saved by it. 

In showing forth Christ's death, the communi- 
cant may be said to show forth the fact of his 
death ; he asserts it as a great and mighty fact. 
The world may pronounce it a fiction ; some may 
mention it with scorn, others may treat it as the 
death of a criminal ; but he regards it as a great 
historic fact of unparalleled importance, worthy 
of being commemorated, perpetuated, and gloried 
in. You declare by your appearing at that table, 
that you believe that Jesus was born of a woman, 
made under the law — that he lived, a man of 
sorrows — that he died upon the cross. You assert 
your belief in his death as an indisputable fact. 



56 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

The communicant shows forth, in the second 
place, the manner of his death. That bread, he 
tells you, which he takes, is broken ; so his body 
was wounded and bruised for us. His death was 
no babe-like departure, scarcely to be distinguished 
from sleep ; it was a death accompanied with agony 
that our finite hearts can never conceive, nor our 
human speech express ; it was not the agony of 
the outward man, for I believe that was the least, 
but the agony of the inward man, an agony wiiich 
no painter can embody, which no crucifixes reveal 
— which no imagination can fathom, which not 
Scripture language itself adequately expresses. His 
death was concentrated agony of soul: he describes 
it in Psalms xxii. and lxix. in no common words. 
Men slew the Son of God; men are said to have 
been the murderers of the Lord of Glory. He is 
said to have been nailed to a cross, to have borne 
our sins in his own body on the tree, to have been 
made a curse for us. 

But w r e show forth at his table, not only the fact 
of his death, and the nature of his death, but we 
show forth also the importance of his death. I 
have said there must be something in the Re- 
deemer's death that distinguishes it from the death 
of any other, however holy, when such a rite has 
been instituted in the Church, and celebrated age 
after age, and by millions after millions, in order 
that thus it might be commemorated. There is no 
rite appointed to celebrate the death of Paul, or 
Peter, or Polycarp, or Ignatius, or any other great 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 57 

martyr, or inspired Apostle, or heroic Christian 
who lived and died for Jesus' sake. Such deaths 
are not thought so important, yet these were singu- 
larly good men, and great men ; they lived as saints 
and died like martyrs; their deaths are not com- 
memorated by significant rites, but the death of 
Jesus is so. If we read the account given in the 
Scriptures respecting it, we shall find that it keeps 
a place so distinct, so prominent, so peculiar, that 
every honest reader must infer that it was more 
than the death of a good man, or of a martyr — 
that, in short, it was the death of God manifest in 
the flesh. If we refer to the past, all the promises 
of two thousand years echo with intimations of it. 
" The woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's 
head." " He was wounded for our transgressions," 
says Isaiah. " He was cut off, but not for his own 
sins," says Daniel. "Awake, O sword, against my 
shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow," 
says another. " He was the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world." If we look again at 
the future, we hear John describing him in glory, 
as " a Lamb, as if it had been slain, seated on the 
throne." And again, it is written, the "Lord God 
Almighty and the Lamb is the light thereof." I 
hear him spoken of through the whole Apocalypse, 
as the "King of Glory," seated on a throne as the 
central object of the love, the adoration, the joy 
of the whole redeemed multitudes in heaven. 
God's people regard him as their great trust and 
hope, "whom though now we see him not, yet 
20* 



58 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable." " His 
blood cleanseth from all sin;" "He is made unto 
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
and redemption." Thus Christ's death illuminates 
the past, consecrates the present, makes desirable 
the future ; he is the Alpha and the Omega. All 
time is filled with his being, all space with his ful- 
ness ; his death is set forth as something so pecu- 
liar, so distinct, so different from the death of all 
that have been or can be, that we must presume 
there is something in it infinitely important, and 
that when we celebrate this solemnity, we publicly 
and emphatically say so. 

We show forth at that table not only the import- 
ance of his death, but also its sacrificial efficacy. 
In other words, just as we believe that the passover 
lamb was the sacrifice that was slain, and the feast 
that was celebrated at the commemoration of the 
deliverance of Israel, so Christ is the Lamb slain, 
and this communion is the feast after the sacrifice. 
We believe that Christ's death was the death of the 
Priest, the Prophet, and the King of his Church : 
we believe that he died not primarily or chiefly to 
set us an example, or to unfold a beautiful biography, 
an ever-enduring model of patience, and a death 
of unparalleled submission, but that he died a sub- 
stitute for sinners; that he died the just, in the 
room of the unjust — that our iniquities were laid 
upon him, and that he bore our sins in his own 
body on the tree ; and that by his stripes we are 
healed. In other words, we declare our solemn 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 59 

conviction when we draw near to that table, that 
Jesus lived and died, not merely as the example 
how men should live and die, but that he died to 
atone for our sins ; that his death is our life — that 
his cross is the way to heaven — that his blood, and 
it alone, cleanseth from all sin. We not only ex- 
press our belief, or show forth that he died a sacri- 
fice, but we declare the perfection and complete- 
ness of that sacrifice. The Lord's supper is not a 
propitiatory sacrifice ; it is the feast that has fol- 
lowed the sacrifice. When Christ said, "It is 
finished,'' the universe re-echoed his words; all 
propitiation closed, and all that are taught of God 
believe that it is so. There is not one sin on this 
earth which he has not expiated; no one sinner 
who is excluded from faith in him — there is no- 
thing in the universe besides, by which one sinner 
can be justified, or one sin forgiven. "His blood 
cleanseth from all sin ;" "He made an end of sin 
by the sacrifice of himself." The grandeur of the 
offering is only equalled by the glory of him that 
made it. He is the perfect propitiation for the sins 
of all them that believe ; we want nothing more, 
and we can be satisfied with nothing less. There 
is nothing expiatory in our tears, in our afflictions, 
in our sufferings : there is nothing meritorious in 
our alms, in our good deeds, in our fruits, in our 
conformity — all that is atoning is in the blood of 
Jesus, all that is meritorious is in the finished 
righteousness of Jesus. When you draw near to 
that table, you say, we have no merit of our own, 



60 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

but we plead his ; we have nothing but sin, and 
we would not present ourselves were it not for this, 
that his blood cleanseth from all sin. Your retro- 
spect rests upon the cross, as the place of a perfect 
sacrifice ; and your prospect stretches to his crown, 
when he shall come again and receive you to him- 
self, that where he is, there ye may be also. 

Thus too, when you approach that table you not 
only show forth the completeness of that sacrifice, 
but you show forth the absolute necessity of it. 
You declare in dumb but expressive eloquence, 
that if Christ had not borne your sins you would 
have borne them throughout eternity, and have 
drunk of that cup of wrath, which eternity cannot 
exhaust. You declare your solemn and deliberate 
conviction, that rivers of oil, the death of your 
firstborn,* all you have, could not purchase your 
salvation, or wash away one sin ; and that if God 
had not so loved the world as to give his only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
should not perish, you would have perished for 
ever. You therefore approach that table, saying, 
" Lord, when there was no hand to help us, and 
no eye to pity us, thine arm did help us, and 
thine eye pitied us, and we praise thee and glorify 
thee for all we are, and have, and hope for." You 
come to that table, declaring solemnly, that if 
Christ had not died for the chiefest of sinners, 
there would have been nothing for you but "a 
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion. " But more than this; you not only show 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 61 

forth the efficacy and completeness of his death, 
but by taking that bread, and eating that bread, 
you declare your conviction that it is not enough 
that Christ died for sinners ; you must personally 
close with him, and accept him as the Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world. If Christ's 
death were all Christ did, angels see this and know 
this as well as we ; angels, if ever they are where 
a communion table is spread, may look and do 
look, "for into these things they desire to look;" 
but men must not only look, but they must take 
and eat of that feast. Angels can only look, for 
that expresses the extent of their interest in it ; but 
sinners must do more than look; they must learn, 
they must eat, they must believe, they must live in, 
and on, and by Christ. Christianity is primarily a 
personal thing ; there must be the personal surren- 
der of the heart, the personal acquiescence of the 
judgment, the personal expression of the feeling, 
the personal leaning of the soul upon Christ and 
him crucified, before there can be salvation and 
perfect peace with God. 

You ask, how long are we to do this ? The 
answer is, u till he come/' How beautifully, though 
quietly, do these words show 7 that Jesus, when he 
expected to die on the morrow, contemplated his 
resurrection and the continuous existence of that 
Church w T hich would last from the commencement 
of the world to its close! "Do it till I come." 
What mysterious accents to some of the Apostles 
at that moment ! " I am about to suffer on a cross 



62 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

to-morrow, and yet there is a time when I shall 
come again." The communion table acts as the 
connecting rite between Christ who came to suffer, 
and Christ who comes to reign. It is the con- 
necting link, as it were, between Christ on the 
cross and Christ upon his throne. It connects the 
wreath of thorns and the diadem of glory. It 
bids us look back to the Man of sorrow, it bids 
us look forward and behold our King, coming no 
longer on an ass, and on the foal of an ass, but in 
the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 
This institution, then, is to be solemnized till 
Christ comes again ; it is to continue in the Church 
so long as there is a Church upon earth, and only 
when he comes again will there be no more use for 
it. "Do this in remembrance of me," implies that 
Christ is at present bodily absent, and what con- 
firms that interpretation is this fact, that it is to 
be continued only till he comes ; when he comes 
he will be bodily present, and then it is useless to 
do this in remembrance of him. The glass through 
which we have seen darkly shall then be broken, 
the shadow shall be swept away ; we shall then no 
more see through a glass darkly, but we shall see 
him face to face, and shall be like him, for we 
shall see him as he is. 

Such, then, is the Scriptural definition of this 
holy solemnity: you come to show forth the Lord's 
death. You that do not believe in the fact of his 
death, may not come. You that do not believe in 
the sufficiency of his death, may not come. You 



SUBJECT OF THE COMMUNION. 63 

that do not believe that you need an interest in 
the purchase of that death, may not come. You 
that are ashamed of that cross should not come. 
But you, the chiefest of sinners, wearied with the 
burden of your sins, and seeking rest — you who 
know what it is to have tears, and anxieties, and 
perplexities, and suspicions of self — you who are 
anxious to be rid of all this, and to have perfect 
peace and perfect joy — you are invited to come. 
That table is spread, not for those who bring their 
virtues to glory in them, nor for those who bring 
their sins to get sanction for them, but for those 
who bring their goodness and cast it at the 
Saviour's feet, as his creation ; and for those who 
bring their sins, hating them, and to wash them 
away in the Saviour's blood. It is spread for im- 
perfect sinners seeking to be perfect ; for weak faith 
seeking to be strong ; for cold love seeking to be 
warmed; for humble hearts that can say, "Lord, 
we perish, do thou save us." 



64 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

V. 

COMMUNICANTS. 

"For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered 
unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he 
was betrayed, took bread." — 1 Cor. xi. 23. 

Remember thee and all thy pains, 

And all thy love to me ; 
Yea, while a breath or pulse remains, 

I will remember thee. 

In a former chapter I have described the names 
by which this interesting ordinance is known — 
"the Eucharist," "the Lord's Supper/' "the Break- 
ing of Bread," "the Sacrament," and, as it was 
frequently termed in ancient times, " the Mystery;" 
all of which words convey in varied phraseology, 
and by different allusions, the great truths which 
this institution was designed to represent. St. Paul 
received the knowledge of the institution, and was 
commanded to embody the mode in which it 
should be celebrated, not from man but from the 
Lord. "I received of the Lord that which also I 
delivered unto you." I have noticed the very 
interesting truth that lies underneath this record, 
that Christ, the author of it, is God. " The same 
night in which he was betrayed," when a human 
heart would have overflowed with the deep sense 
of its own near suffering, on that same night, He 



COMMUNICANTS. 65 

whose whole life, like his death, was vicarious, 
merged every anticipation of personal woe and 
agony, and occupied himself in providing for us, 
not an essential, but a subsidiary element of com- 
fort, happiness, joy, and peace. So true was it that 
he was smitten that we might be saved, and that 
as never man spake like him, so never man lived 
like him, and never man died like him. " The 
same night on which he was betrayed, ,, then, M he 
took" — what? Not gold, which the poor congre- 
gation cannot reach, nor expensive and precious 
gems, which " few and farjbetween" can obtain, but 
he took that which rich men have, and which poor 
men may have — the common element of common 
bread. Why ? because there was any virtue in that 
bread ? No ; there is no more spiritual virtue in 
bread than there is in a stone. He might have 
equally taken any thing else ; it is his appointment 
and ordinance that makes it expressive of a mean- 
ing and of mysteries far beyond our apprehension. 
How little is said here about what is made so much 
of in other quarters — chiefly in the Church of Rome 
— the act of consecration! He merely "gave 
thanks," or, as in another Gospel, "blessed it," set 
it apart from a common to a sacred use. From his 
giving thanks it is called the Eucharist, which 
means " thanksgiving." And he said, " Take, eat ; 
this is my body," i. e. this is the symbol of my body ; 
a figure that frequently occurs in Scripture, to in- 
terpret which literally is to fill Christianity with 
monstrosities, and to depart to the utmost possible 
21 f2 



66 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

extent from Scripture and common sense. So 
Christ says, "I am the Vine," "I am the door," 
"This is the Lord's passover," all of which are 
similar or analogous expressions to " This do in 
remembrance of me." "After the same manner 
he took the cup after he had supped, and said, 
This cup is the new testament in my blood." I 
have already called the reader's attention to the 
fact, that in the record of the institution of this 
ordinance contained in St. Matthew, it is added, 
" Drink ye all of it." There was prophecy in that 
utterance. He did not say of the bread, " Eat ye 
all of it," because none would dare to forbid the 
bread; but he saw in the long vista of coming 
years that the people would* be taught that it was 
better and more expedient to withdraw the cup 
from the laity ; and therefore he says, in anticipa- 
tion of this, "Drink ye all of it," that you may 
know and claim your right;, "for as often as ye 
eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew forth 
the Lord's death" — the fact of his death, the 
necessity of his death, the fruits of his death, the 
purchase of his death — "until he come." The 
Lord's supper is like a beautiful rainbow, remind- 
ing us of the covenant of God, one end of which 
rests upon the cross, and the other end of which 
rests upon the crown, spanning the mighty space 
between the pledge of bliss, the token of peace 
with God. "Wherever and whensoever " ye eat 
this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew forth the 
Lord's death until he come." 



COMMUNICANTS. 67 

I proceed to offer a few explanatory remarks on 
the relative meaning of this sacrament, and also to 
vindicate certain references which are very often 
misapprehended by communicants. 

There is one characteristic by which the Lord's 
supper is known, which to my mind is extremely 
expressive ; it is called " the Communion." " We 
believe," in the language of an ancient creed, "in 
the communion of saints." It symbolizes our 
union and fellowship, our common fall and common 
restoration in the sight of God. Therefore you 
not only show forth the Lord's death till he come ; 
you not only express in the most marked and vivid 
manner the thankfulness that you feel to him for 
his great and precious benefits, but you also make 
evident your belief in your relationship of union 
and communion with all the people of God. The 
Apostle says, " The cup of blessing which we bless, 
is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ?" 
i. e. the communion, the participation in common 
of the benefits and blessings purchased by the 
blood of Christ ; " and the bread which we break 
is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" 
i. e, our common participation of all the blessings 
of the incarnation of Christ. Thus, when we 
approach the table of the Lord, we all declare that 
whatever be the lines of distinction that sever us 
in the sight of Csesar, there are no strong and dis- 
tinguishable lines that separate us in the judgment 
of God. We all present ourselves at that table to 
eat of that one bread and to drink of that one cup, 



68 THE COMMUNION TABLE* 

leaning upon that one sacrifice, asking for the fulfil- 
ment of that one hope ; and so we set forth before 
the Church and the world, our union each with 
Christ, and our communion each with the other. 
It is thus that you seat j T ourselves at a communion 
table. In surrounding that table, we do not avow 
that we are Churchmen, holding communion with 
the Church, or Dissenters holding communion with 
Dissenters, or Independents, or Presbyterians, or 
any other sect — these are all left outside ; these are 
the faded robes that we leave behind us — but 
Christians, one with Christ and each other. There 
is but one robe that each wears at that table, that 
is the robe, "the first, the best one," as it is called 
in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the robe 
of a Redeemer's righteousness. He whose faith 
trembles, as it were, on the verge of extinction, 
and he who has faith that he could remove moun- 
tains, equally need it, and it is unto all, and upon 
all them that believe, and there is no difference 
at all. 

There is a truly beautiful feature in this ordinance 
worthy of study. In the Old Testament economy, 
when the sacrifice, the ceremonial sacrifices of oxen 
and sheep and heifers were made upon the altar, 
the priests fed upon the flesh of the sacrifices that 
were offered on the altar. So the priests, in the 
language of the Apostle, " lived by the altar ;" they 
that served by the altar literally and truly lived by 
the altar. In other words, it was the victim that 
was offered up as a great typical propitiation, on 



COMMUNICANTS. 69 

which the priests, after it was prepared, fed and 
maintained their natural life ; and this not without 
meaning. It is so with us : the great sacrifice has 
been oflered once for all, complete, finished, never 
to be added to, nor to be subtracted from; and we 
who are priests — for all true Christians are priests, 
as it is written, " He hath made us a chosen gene- 
ration, a royal priesthood" — and having now that 
access into the true Holy, which the high priest 
had of old into the typical Holy, draw near to this 
table, celebrate this holy festival, and feed our 
souls upon the fruits and the blessings, the right- 
eousness, the joys, and all the purchase of that 
blood, by which we are redeemed ; and we have 
access by faith into this sonship and fellowship in 
which we stand. We come, then, to that table to 
feed on spiritual blessings, received from Jesus, not 
to derive virtue from the bit of bread we eat, or 
from the little wine that we sip ; to look above the 
cup and beyond the bread, and so to feel that in 
honouring God by complying with his prescription, 
he will be true to his promises, and pour out upon 
us blessings and benefits abundantly, above all that 
we can either ask or think, according to his own 
covenant which has been of old, ordered in all 
things and sure. 

This feast proves to us — for it is a feast after a 
sacrifice — that God is now reconciled to us. What 
was the ancient mode in which they that had been 
enemies, celebrated the restoration of the peace 
that had been suspended ? It was by a festival, or 
21* 



70 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

by celebrating a feast, at which they that had been 
foes sat down at the same table, and drank of the 
same cup, and ate of the same bread. God has 
provided for ns this feast ; God has instituted for 
ns this happy festival ; and this institution of it is 
a pledge to ns that he is at peace with his people, 
that there is no kind of quarrel, or controversy, or 
of strife between them. Just as God could stand 
upon the heights of Ararat, and point Noah's eye 
to the beautiful bow, and assure him that so long 
as that bow spanned the heaven and tipped the 
earth, so long no second deluge should happen, so 
God may point to this institution, which is only 
another symbol more expressive than the bow in 
the cloud, and tell you that as long as you observe 
that this festival exists, and you eat that bread and 
drink that cup, you have evidence that whatever 
be your suspicions, your doubts, your fears, your 
trembling, your dismay, on God's part all is recon- 
ciliation, peace, and good-will toward his own. 
And you who surround that table, once hateful 
and hating one another, feel that you are now 
made one by the blood of his cross, and have fel- 
lowship with God, and with his Son Christ Jesus, 
and with one another. 

I regard the sacrament as a social ordinance: 
and I wish particularly here to correct what I think 
is a misapprehension. There is an idea prevalent 
in the minds of many, that the minister is to admi- 
nister the sacrament to the individuals who partake 
of it. The language, if properly explained, is 



COMMUNICANTS. 71 

proper, but it is very frequently grievously misap- 
prehended. At the Lord's supper there is no offi- 
ciating priest. Doing a priestly act, or putting 
into your hands a piece of bread that will act like 
an exorcism, or convey some mysterious and unde- 
finable virtue, is not Christianity. The minister 
celebrates the ordinance as your servant for Christ's 
sake, and as a matter of order. You are the 
priests ; we are all priests, and we surround that 
table as true priests, celebrating a social ordinance 
among ourselves, not receiving it from the hands 
of one who alone can communicate to it a virtue, 
which may render it a charm, a necromancy. It 
is a social ordinance ; each having equal access to 
God, equal privilege, equal acceptance, equal right 
to draw near to the Holiest of all. I believe that 
the idea that has done the greatest damage to the 
Christian Church is the priestly ; the idea that the 
minister is still a sort of priest, with priestly 
powers, and that he can do and communicate what 
others cannot. My dear readers, there is no foun- 
dation for such a pretension in the word of God ; 
a sacrificing priest has no more business to stand 
at the communion table, or to preach from the 
pulpit, than the colonel of a regiment. There is 
no such officer in the house of God as a sacrificing 
priest; there is no such officer enumerated in the 
apostolic ministry in the New Testament. When 
Christ said, "It is finished," all priestly functions 
came to an end ; and from the graves of the buried 



72 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

Levites there rose a company of preachers and 
ambassadors of Christ. 

Again, this ordinance is, as I endeavoured to 
show formerly, a corporate preaching of Christ and 
him crucified. From the pulpit the minister 
preaches the Lord's death in words ; but when you 
approach this table, you too show, or, as it is lite- 
rally translated, proclaim, or sound forth, the 
Lord's death till he come. You take, as it were, 
rightfully and by God's investiture, the function of 
preaching into your own hands, and embody by 
expressive silence the Redeemer's death ; and that 
dumb and silent spectacle is preferred by Him who 
inspired the Bible, as not the least eloquent and 
expressive enunciation of the death, the atonement, 
and the sacrifice of Jesus. 

We learn that this institution is of perpetual 
obligation. "Ye do show forth the Lord's death 
until he come," "in remembrance of me." The 
one we hope for, the other we are to recollect 
w 7 hilst we have a being; and he who does not come 
to that table plainly disobeys the command. I think 
that even those whose faith is faint, whose love is 
cold, but who can say that in all honesty and sin- 
cerity they love the Lord Jesus and rest upon him, 
and desire to live for him and die in him, should 
come. It is the act by which, as it w T ere, they 
commit themselves to Christianity. It is the Rubi- 
con, as it were, that severs us from heathenism; 
and by doing so, there is a new pledge and guar- 
antee that you will live, and act, and die, as beco- 



COMMUNICANTS. 73 

meth the Gospel of Christ. We owe it to the 
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to observe this 
ordinance. We ought thus to strengthen, and en- 
courage, and comfort each other : the communion 
of saints should be made actual. We should be 
Christians, not only secretly, but openly and pub- 
licly. And you know that when some profess 
openly their adoption of the Gospel, it encourages 
thousands more to follow their example. We owe 
it also to the world to celebrate and observe this 
ordinance. It is declared to be a preaching forth 
of Christ's death to the world; we ought to use 
and to avail ourselves of this, and of every other 
means of impression that God has placed within 
our reach. Hence it has been always the custom 
in the Church of Scotland, to invite those who do 
not communicate to remain during the service: she 
does not wish strangers to retire, she wishes them 
to remain ; that as to believers it is a comforting 
ordinance, to them also, who are spectators, it may 
be an impressive, convincing, and converting ordi- 
nance ; for when we draw round that table, we 
proclaim before heaven and earth our conviction of 
the fact, the necessity, the preciousness of the death 
of Christ. 

Let me now look at some of the difficulties that 
occur to Christian minds, and prevent them from 
drawing near to this table, and commemorating 
the Lord's death. Many, for instance, have a deep 
sense of unworthiness, and make that a reason why 
thej 7 should not come to that table. The moment 

G 



74 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

that you feel that you are worth y, then is the mo- 
ment that God will pronounce you unworthy. He 
that has the deepest sense of the deepest un worthi- 
ness, is he whose record in heaven is the greatest 
worthiness of all. In one sense, all are most un- 
worthy; in another sense, he that feels so the most 
deeply is he that is most emphatically worthy. Did 
you go to Christ for pardon because you felt wor- 
thy ? No ; you went to him for pardon because 
you felt that you were utterly unworthy of the least 
of all his mercies. The same feeling with which 
you apply to Christ for forgiveness, is the best and 
worthiest feeling with which you can approach this 
table to commemorate his death, and to receive 
new blessings and benefits from him. Take care 
lest what you call your sense of unworthiness be 
not a cloak for much self-righteousness. Take care 
lest you are really looking for something to lean 
upon as you approach that table — something that 
you can lay before God, and plead as worthy of 
his notice at that table. They are utterly unworthy 
who bring their sins to that feast to continue in 
them, or who bring their virtues to glory and to 
rejoice in them. 

But again, it is stated that "unworthy partaking 
is a great sin, and we are afraid of risking the 
commission of such a sin.' , If the right way to 
avoid one sin is to commit another, we might be 
justified in doing so: but because it is a sin to 
communicate unworthily, does it cease to be a sin 
not to communicate at all ? The plain inference 



COMMUNICANTS. 75 

is, because it is a sin to communicate unworthily, 
let all pray for that wedding-robe, and that contrite 
heart, and that deep and genuine repentance, and 
that faith and confidence, which constitute the ele- 
ments of worthy communicating. But the words 
"worthy," and "unworthy/' I believe, are used 
here mainly in reference to the spirit, and object, 
and end of the Corinthians in coming to that table. 
They confounded it with a common meal; they 
came to it as to the enjoyment of domestic hospi- 
tality. They merged the sublime and essential 
truth, that there was a spiritual ordinance for spiri- 
tual men, and for spiritual ends ; they came in a 
way unworthy, in a way so peculiarly so, that I 
think it is scarcely possible that we can imitate 
them. He who feels that in the sight of God he is 
unworthy of the least of all the mercies of a 
Saviour's purchase, and draws near that God seek- 
ing all that can make him worthy — comes in the 
right spirit, and will receive the most abundant 
blessing. If you come indeed with unworthy and 
unscriptural views of yourselves, thinking self to 
be somebody in God's sight; if you come with 
unworthy views of Christ, believing that he is there 
as a judge, waiting to condemn you, not as a 
Saviour, ready to forgive you ; if you come with 
unworthy views of the sacrament itself, as if it 
could make atonement for your sin, instead of 
coming to commemorate an atonement, perfect, 
complete, once for all, and needing not to be re- 
peated ; if you come with unworthy views of sin, 



76 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

thinking sin not sinful, and unworthy views of 
holiness, thinking holiness not happiness ; then, 
indeed, you are most unworthy communicants. Or 
if you come with unworthy tempers, to display 
your superiority to others, or to get a passport to 
some civil office, or to comply with a decent and 
an ancient custom, or to be able to cheat upon the 
Monday with less chance of detection, because you 
have communicated on the Sunday with great 
appearance of devotion ; if you come with such 
motives or such tempers, beyond all dispute you 
are unworthy communicants, and ought not to be 
there. But if you approach that holy table, mourn- 
ing that there is in you so much of the old man, 
and so little of the new, and anxious to receive 
spiritual benefits from Christ in the ordinance — 
lamenting your weakness and coldness, and pray- 
ing God to make you what he would have you to 
be ; then fear not, for he will not break the bruised 
reed, nor quench the smoking flax ; he will nurse 
the one till it burst into flame, and he will 
strengthen the other till it becomes the organ of 
his praise, and of your thanksgiving. 

But it is said, that persons who partake unwor- 
thily are "guilty of the body and blood of Christ. ,, 
What is meant by this phrase ? It is certainly a 
very strong expression, "shall be guilty of the body 
and blood of Christ.' ' I do not wish to palliate 
the offence, the grievous offence, of umvorthily 
communicating, but I wish that God's word should 
be allowed to speak for itself, and that we should 



COMMUNICANTS. 77 

not make its meaning stronger or weaker than God 
meant it to be. Many persons construe these words 
as if they meant that if we should come with some 
unworthy temper — which God forbid! — and so 
communicate, we are just as guilty as the Jews 
who crucified the Lord of glory, and put him to 
an open shame, and thereby set our seal to what 
the Jews did, and incur all the guilt which lay so 
heavy and so crushing upon them. The passage 
has really no such meaning. I have looked atten- 
tively at the words, and compared them with the 
original. The words are these : u He that eateth 
and drinketh unworthily, shall be guilty of the 
body and blood of the Lord" (Ivo^os §Wai tou tfuiiarog 
xtei a'/fjia<ro$ tou Kup/ou); which literally translated, 
according to the use of these words in all classical 
writers, is, " will be justly chargeable with the sin 
of doing discredit to the body and blood of Christ, 
as symbolized on that table :" i. e. he that comes 
to that table in an unholy and unsanctified spirit, 
casts discredit alike on the Gospel, and on its ordi- 
nances, as far as his personal influence can reach, 
and leads others to do the very same thing. But 
it is also added, that part of the sin is " not dis- 
cerning the Lord's body," and therefore I dread to 
approach that table. To discern the Lord's body, 
as if it were bodily present, wx>uld be to believe in 
something near akin to transubstantiation. We 
are not called upon to see in that bread anything 
but bread, after consecration ; nor in that cup any- 
thing but wine. Then you ask, what is meant by 
22 g2 



78 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

not discerning the Lord's body ? The word is the 
same as that translated " differ " in 1 Cor. iv. 7, 
"Who maketh thee to differ?" and the words 
strictly rendered mean, "not distinguishing that 
these are constituted by the word and prayer the 
signs and symbols of the Lord's body, by being 
set apart from their common use to that purpose;" 
but, on the contrary, taking them as if they were 
bread and wine for the hungry, and weary, and 
thirsty, wherewith physically to refresh their bodies. 
Literally translated, it is, "not making a difference 
between this sacramental supper, and the ordinary 
meals which you employ for the maintenance and 
strengthening of your ordinary life." But then 
you say, another expression here is a very awful 
one ; " eating and drinking damnation." The 
word "damnation," in the ancient usage of the 
English tongue, meant simply "condemnation." 
Our translation was made, all are aware, upwards 
of two hundred years ago, and the language of 
England has altered since that time, though we 
rejoice to know that the authorized version of the 
Scriptures is still the standard of the purest and 
noblest English ; hence the word "damnation" 
should more properly have been rendered "conr 
demnation :" the context explains what is meant 
by this word ; for how does the Apostle define this 
damnation ? In verse 30, he describes what it is : 
"For this cause many are weak (weak in faith, that 
may be) and sickly among you," L e. bodily dis- 
eased, " and many sleep," t. e. are dead. In other 



COMMUNICANTS. 79 

words, we are told that God punishes unworthy 
communicating, just as he will punish neglect of 
the Lord's supper altogether, with those troubles 
and disasters, and judgments, that are here men- 
tioned. But how does he conclude this ? " For if 
we would judge ourselves,'' L e. if we would exa- 
mine ourselves, "we should not be judged." Now 
what is the nature of this judgment, or " eating 
and drinking damnation," the effect of which is, 
many are sick and weakly ? We read that when 
we are thus judged, thus "weak and sickly," thus 
"eat and drink damnation," we are "chastened of 
the Lord," as children by a father, it is that we 
should not be condemned with the world. In other 
words, the believer is chastened by his Father for 
his unworthy communicating; and chastening by 
God is here not the punishment inflicted by a judge 
on criminals, or by a king on rebels, but the chas- 
tisement inflicted upon his children, when we per- 
mit ourselves to eat and drink at that table un- 
worthily. 

So much then for the expression, "eating and 
drinking damnation;" but then the Apostle says, 
"Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat 
of that bread, and drink of that cup." Notice this 
point, which I believe has been overlooked in the 
common interpretation of the passage. The mean- 
ing is not, "Let us examine ourselves, and if we 
are not fit let us avoid that table, and if we are fit 
let us approach it;" but the Apostle takes for 
granted that if a man examine himself, he is fit ; 



80 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

that the fact of this examination indicates such 
sincerity, such anxietj-, such desire to be what God 
would have us to be, that if a man examine him- 
self, he is sure to come to the Lord's table ; for his 
language is, " Let a man examine himself, and so 
let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." 
Wherever, then, there is sincere, heartfelt, honest 
self-inspection in ascertaining w T hat is the ground 
of our trust, what the nature of our character is, on 
whom we lean, whom we imitate, whom we would 
glorify, with whom we daily walk in time, and 
hope to spend eternity ; examining whether we are 
honest men when we repeat the Creed, and pray, 
and praise, and hear ; honest in our convictions of 
the truth and infinite value of Christian^, whether 
we are followers of them who by faith and patience 
inherit the promises. If we so examine ourselves, 
prayerfully, impartially, truly, depend upon it w T e 
shall take the next step, which is to approach that 
table, and to " eat of that bread and drink of that 
cup." But many will say, "It is quite evident 
that we ought to go to that table, it is our duty, 
our privilege to go ; an institution appointed amid 
such solemnities, and by such a Saviour, and so 
put forward and pressed upon us in the Gospel, 
ought not to be avoided or postponed ; but then 
we are afraid that in our subsequent career we shall 
act unworthily, and so bring discredit upon the 
Gospel." It is a beautiful fear; it is full of pro- 
mise, if any fear may be so described ; it is a fear 
that reflects credit, in one respect, upon him that 



COMMUNICANTS. 81 

feels it. A Christian heart does shrink lest it 
should say anything, or do anything, that could be 
the means of obstructing the spread, or hindering 
the reception of the Gospel of Jesus ; but then, let 
us remember, the God that leads us to that table is 
the God that goes with us from it. The God that 
has been your strength to-day, has promised to be 
your strength to-morrow; he is the same yester- 
day, to-day, and for ever ; the same next year that 
he has been in the last. May it not be a safer way 
to obey his command, and to have confidence in 
him — to do his will, and to lean upon his strength 
to enable you to do so ? Cease, then, to suspect 
that he will not give you strength, and under this 
suspicion to reject the duty that plainly devolves 
upon you. Make the experiment ; " God honours 
them that honour him;" confidence in God was 
never yet disappointed. He that goes a warfare at 
God's charges, is sure to be the conqueror ; he that 
goes out, leaning on God's strength, is sure to per- 
severe. "My strength is made perfect in weak- 
ness." " My grace is sufficient for thee." "I will 
never leave you nor forsake you." "In six trou- 
bles I have been with you, and in seven I will not 
desert you." 

Many urge another plea: "Numbers neglect this 
ordinance ; and therefore if we neglect it, we are 
only doing what numbers of others do." Painful 
is the fact, only the more painful because it is in- 
disputably true, that there are only about eighty 
thousand communicants out of the two millions of 
22* 



82 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

people who form the population of London. It is 
a painful fact, that all the communicants of all 
Protestant denominations in London are under 
100,000. In this great city, only about 100,000 go 
so far as to say by that act that they are the people 
of God, and hope to be happy with him for ever. 
But suppose that instead of being 80,000, there 
were only one hundred in London, this is no fur- 
ther business of ours except as matter for grief, 
motive to prayer, and reason for missionary exer- 
tion. Duty does not depend upon the numbers 
that cleave to it, it remains the same whether 
many or few accept it; " Thou shalt not follow a 
multitude to do evil/' The number engaged in 
the commission of a crime does not mitigate in the 
least degree the enormity of it. The fact that there 
are few communicants, instead of being a reason 
for our not communicating, is a strong reason why 
we should seek to make that few more. 

But some one may make the remark, "Salvation 
is not suspended on our communicating." I grant 
it is not ; I grant we are saved by Christ's blood 
alone, but is it not at least doubtful whether that 
man has really, unreservedly, and fully given him- 
self to the Lord, who lives in weekly, monthly, 
quarterly, yearly violation of a commandment just 
as plain as this, "Thou shalt do no murder,'' and 
impressed under circumstances vastly more impres- 
sive and affecting ? I do not say such will be lost, 
because I know what inconsistencies are found to 
be compatible with love to God in the heart; and 



COMMUNICANTS. 83 

the more we know of human nature in all its 
phases, the more we shall be inclined to forgive, 
and the less we shall be disposed to condemn. But 
however I may forgive or forget, I may not disguise 
the responsibilities that they incur as hearers of 
God's word. "If ye love me, keep my command- 
ments ;" the evidence of love is obedience, and 
that man w T ho wilfully, and knowingly, and deli- 
berately lives in violation of known duty, seems to 
me not to give the evidence that I could desire of 
complete surrender to the Lord ; on the contrary, 
he furnishes strong reason for suspecting that he is 
not yet walking in that narrow way that leads to 
life everlasting. 

In coming to that table, let us bear in remem- 
brance, we are not come unto Mount Sinai, "to the 
mount that might be touched, and to blackness, 
and darkness and tempest," and the voice of words 
so terrible that they that heard them begged that 
they might not be spoken any more ; but we " are 
come unto Mount Sion, to the city of the living 
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innume- 
rable company of angels, and to God the judge of 
all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant, 
whose blood speaketh better things than that of 
Abel." 



84 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

VI. 

THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 

And when these failing lips grow dumb, 

And mind and memory flee ; 
When thou shalt in thy kingdom come, 

Jesus, remember me. 

" My heart is fixed, God, my heart is fixed." 

Psalm xlvii. 7. 

The words at the head of this chapter contain a 
truth of the greatest value, and describe a condi- 
tion rare as it is precious in the sight of God. A 
wavering, vacillating heart, is the possession of us 
all by nature ; a fixed heart is the privilege of all 
that have it only by grace. Man's heart lost its 
attraction to its great centre when he fell, and it 
has vacillated and oscillated ever since. It regains 
its attraction by grace, and remains fixed upon 
Him who is the object of its love, the model it 
would imitate. 

A fixed heart, then, is the topic of our present 
study ; a heart fixed not upon a trifle, nor upon a 
prejudice, nor upon a passion, nor upon an idol, 
nor upon a sect, or a party, but upon the greatest 
things, eternal things, the most momentous things ; 
a heart, in short, that is the fulfilment of David's 
prayer, " O Lord, unite my heart to fear thy name." 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 85 

Let us ascertain on what a communicant's heart is 
fixed, and why it should be so fixed. 

First of all, a communicant's heart is fixed upon 
God. He cleaves to him as the supreme object of 
his choice ; he does so, perhaps, not with the same 
fervour nor with the same conscious energy and 
fixity of purpose that David did, but certainly with 
the same fond and progressive approximation to it. 
" Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is 
none upon earth that I desire in comparison of 
thee;" "my heart and my flesh fail," but still, 
even when the heart faints and fails, its great foun- 
dation remains; "thou art the strength of my 
heart, and my portion for ever." A believer will 
fix his heart upon nothing that is beneath God; he 
will fix it absolute^ and supremely upon nothing 
between this and the throne of God. Fix it upon 
the fairest creature upon earth, and that creature 
will fail you, and bitter will be the disappointment; 
or upon the joys, the pleasures, the profits, the 
honours, the aggrandisement of the world, and 
they too will flee from you, and the heart that has 
been fixed upon them will suffer in proportion to 
the stress it laid on these things : but if we can 
learn to fix our hearts supremely upon God, then 
when subordinate things fail, we may regret them 
in proportion as we love them, but while the great 
thing remains, we can still say and sing too, "God 
is our refuge and strength;" in him is our glory. 
Like the eagle, we shall fix our eye on no light 
beneath the noonday sun — we shall rest satisfied 

H 



86 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

by riveting our heart upon none short of Him who 
made that heart, and who alone is worthy of its 
confidence and love. 

If a believer's heart be thus taught, it will fix its 
trust for salvation upon Christ, and Christ alone. 
If you rest to-day upon something you have done, 
and to-morrow upon something you have suffered, 
you will find that the foundation upon which you 
build will not only vibrate and shake with the suc- 
cessive feelings of which you are the subject, but 
that it will fail you in the very hour when it needs 
to be strong as adamant. But if your heart is 
fixed and made up upon this great point, that the 
only atonement in the universe on which it would 
venture to repose its hopes of salvation is the death 
of Jesus, and that the only raiment in which it 
would venture to approach God is that raiment, 
the best, the wedding robe, the linen white and 
clean, which is the righteousness of saints ; if you 
can say that you have fixed your heart only upon 
Christ as your strength, and upon his finished work 
as your foundation ; then the earth may shake, 
and the mountains may be carried into the midst 
of the sea, and all human props may totter, and 
all earthly confidence may be blasted, but your 
trust shall partake of the strength of the founda- 
tion on which it leans, and he that believeth on 
him shall never be confounded. You very often 
hear of certain fixed principles, i. e. matters that 
are settled, that are disposed of, that we cannot 
suffer to be again brought into discussion ; and so 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 87 

there are certain fixed conditions which constitute 
together "a fixed heart," and thus I want the 
reader, in thinking of the Lord's table, to examine 
himself to ascertain if he have that " fixed heart." 

I have said, that a communicant's heart is 
fixed supremely upon God ; you admit you do 
not love him as you ought, nor honour him as 
you ought, nor serve him as you ought, nor 
realize his presence as you ought ; but your heart 
is made up upon this, that it would be your 
greatest delight if you could, and will be your firm 
and steadfast purpose to do what you can. Your 
heart is also fixed upon this, that " there is none 
other name under heaven whereby men must be 
saved;" you feel that you do not lean as you 
ought, that often your faith wavers, your trust fails, 
your confidence is shaken, but yet your mind is 
made up on this, that the only foundation on which 
you will lean is Christ's finished work, and that 
the only raiment in which you will appear before 
God is Christ's perfect righteousness ; and give 
way what may, this never can give way in your 
hearts, that he is the only strength you dare trust, 
and by God's grace he shall be the only strength 
that you will lean on and trust for ever. 

Your heart is fixed in this conviction, that the 
Bible is God's blessed word; and this is a very im- 
portant conviction. Many people have a half convic- 
tion that it is God's word, and a half conviction that 
it is man's. Hence, when a geologist discovers some 
stratum in the earth, or some remarkable deposit, or 



88 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

some species of fossil that was not known before, or 
some remains of extinct animals, the ichthyosaurus, 
the megatherium, or other fossil animal, indicating 
an existence many centuries before chaos, such an 
one feels his confidence in the Bible instantly shaken, 
and begins to argue, "If geology be true, Christi- 
anity must be false." Or if the astronomer applies 
his telescope to the skies, and in looking for 
vestiges of creation, cannot see, poor fool ! in his 
ignorance or his infidelity, vestiges of a God, or 
discovers something in the sky that startles by its 
novelty, or makes an impression because of the 
limited nature of our knowledge and information, 
he comes to the conclusion that the Mosaic account 
of creation is wrong, and the half-convinced Chris- 
tian comes also to the conclusion that the whole 
Bible must be uninspired. "We may rest assured 
of this, that more knowledge will enable us to see 
that the geologist is wrong, and that Moses was 
right, and better telescopes will yet help us to dis- 
cover that Genesis is true, and that the "Vestiges" 
only are mistaken. Such has been our experience 
in the past, and such it will be in the future. But 
a true Christian has settled in his mind that God's 
word is true, and has come to this conviction upon 
independent, distinct, and conclusive evidence ; his 
heart is fixed on this, that God's word is true. 
When I am met with such pretended discoveries, 
and with such plausible objections, I answer, " On 
the clearest evidence, internal, external, historical, 
experimental, I have come to this conclusion, that 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 89 

this book, called the Bible, is God's book. I have 
laid this idea upon the shelf, as it were ; I have 
laid it aside among the great facts in my memory, 
and fixtures in my heart, which must live or die 
with the soul that contains them. I cannot allow 
discussion upon this point. It is with me a fixed 
and absolute principle, on which my mind has long 
been made up, and on which my heart is fixed. I 
have tasted its sweetness, I have felt its power, I 
have realized its comfort, and you can no more 
convince me that the Bible is false, than you can 
convince me that creation is without a Creator, or 
the human family without a Father." So, in a 
fixed heart, it is a fixed principle, " driven as a 
nail into a sure place," never to be dislodged, never 
to be surrendered, and that ought not to be 
obscured, that God's blessed wx>rd is truth. When 
prejudices and misapprehensions come, — when 
Satan, who is our ever-watchful enemy, casts in a 
doubt,- and would make us believe that the Bible 
is a mere human composition, we must then re- 
member our previous blessed conclusion, that this 
book is true, and that one of the fixed principles 
of our heart is, " Thy word, God, is truth." If 
we have made up our minds on this point, we can- 
not consent to have the truth or the falsehood of 
the Bible constantly brought into discussion : if we 
believe there is convincing evidence that the Bible 
is God's word, that this point can be demonstrated 
beyond all possibility of doubt, then lay up this 
fact within you as settled ; as not to be touched ; as 
23 h2 



90 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

a consecrated fact, a fixed principle, on which your 
minds are made up, and about which you cannot 
have any questioning, dispute, or discussion again. 
In the next place, the believer's heart will be 
fixed in this other persuasion, that the Spirit of 
God alone can regenerate the human heart, and 
keep that heart regenerate, sanctified, and progres- 
sively so. If your minds are made up that the 
Spirit of God alone, who made the heart, has 
power equal to the transformation of it — that he 
alone who can raise the dead body, can quicken 
the dead soul — that no rite, nor ceremony, nor 
priest, nor bishop, can possibly change that heart 
by any magic words he can utter, or any beautiful 
rite he can perform, or any process to which hp 
can subject you — then you will have fixed in your 
hearts one of those great fundamental principles 
which will make you proof against all the efforts 
of Popish and Tractarian seducers. Your answer 
to them will be, My heart is fixed on this great 
point that He alone w T ho made the human heart 
can remake it ; that none but he who has omnipo- 
tent pow T er can renew it; and therefore I must 
look to him and to him alone, who acts with me, 
and, when he pleases, against me, to change that 
heart. And this conclusion in the creed of a Chris- 
tian will not be a mere ecclesiastical tradition, 
which he accepts, because the Fathers held it ; nor 
the mere conclusion of a logical argument, in which 
he is compelled to acquiesce ; nor a mere hypothesis, 
w 7 hich he may assume for orthodoxy or convenience 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 91 

sake ; but it is with the Christian the result of 
experiment, the close of a personal process through 
which he has gone, a great truth that he knows to 
be true, because he has felt it to be peace in his 
conscience, holiness in his heart, and in both the 
transforming power of the Holy Spirit of God. 

The believer will have his heart fixed, and re- 
joicing to obey every precept and command of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Does Jesus say, " Ask, and ye 
shall receive ?" Your heart is fixed, that it is your 
duty — 3 r our privilege rather, to pray. Does the 
Lord say, "Do this in remembrance of me?" 
Your answer must be, "My heart is fixed that it is 
my duty to do so, and if I have not the full prepa- 
ration I could desire, I will with obedient hand, 
and believing heart, make ready ; and if I seek the 
spirit of preparation, God may be untrue to him- 
self sooner than deny me the blessing which he 
has promised and sworn to bestow ;" and I solemn- 
ly believe that the reason we do not realize in our 
hearts all the blessings and benefits, the peace, the 
joy, the light, the love of the Gospel, is just that 
we do not first deeply feel our want of them, and 
earnestly, sincerely, and heartily seek them in the 
name of Jesus, and by the Spirit that he has pro- 
mised. Does the Lord Jesus say, "A new com- 
mandment I give unto you, that ye love one ano- 
ther ?" Your heart is fixed upon the duty of 
complying with it. Does he say, "Where two or 
three are gathered together in my name, there am 
I in the midst of them?" Your heart is fixed, it 



92 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

will be your delight to realize it. Has he " left us 
an example that we should follow his steps ?" 
Your heart is fixed that your feet shall tread in his 
footprints, and his example shall be a pillar of light 
to you by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. Has 
he promised, " I will come again and receive you 
unto myself?" Your heart is fixed on that future 
coming, your hopes rest there ; your brightest joys 
come from beyond the horizon, and you wait pa- 
tiently for his coming, because his word encourages 
you to do so. Has he called upon you to u let 
your light so shine before men, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is 
in heaven?" has he taught you that the moment 
you become Christians, that moment you become 
missionaries ? does he tell you that you are made 
the saints of God that you may become the ser- 
vants of men ? has he announced that every gift 
and grace you receive is not for self, for monopoly, 
but for the benefit and blessing of the rest of man- 
kind ? Your heart is fixed that you will seek to 
let your light so shine, you will pray that you may 
be made a blessing to others ; and that wherever 
your name is pronounced, it may be pronounced 
amid the anathemas of the bad, if they like, but 
amid the benedictions and thanksgivings of the 
wise, the good, and free. 

Such, then, are some of the points on which a 
Christian's heart should be fixed; such are the 
great, essential, vital truths, on which our minds 
should be made up. 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 93 

Let me now show why our hearts should be thus 
fixed. The moment that man fell, that moment 
his heart broke loose from God, as the magnetic 
needle, when it comes under the influence of some 
foreign attraction, fails in its inclination to the 
pole, hesitates and wavers awhile, and then points 
in some other direction. So it is with man's 
heart: it parted with its great attraction at the fall; 
Christ died to restore it to its lost attraction, for he 
declares, " I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men 
unto me ;" and we are thus drawn to God when 
we see the infinitude of his love. "We then taste 
its sweetness and feel its power, and are conscious, 
from our happy experience, that Christianity is not 
a dream, but a reality, and vital religion not a 
name, but a substance ; and so our hearts, touched 
by his Spirit, are restored to their first attraction, 
and rest upon him who is the beginning and the 
end, the first and the last. 

I conceive our hearts should be fixed, because 
nothing is less comfortable to ourselves, or less 
useful to others in its influence, than a vacillating, 
unsettled, and unfixed heart. The man who is 
blown about by every wind of doctrine — who, in 
popular language, "has no judgment of his own," 
— who does not know on what side to rally — who 
halts between two opinions — who has one mind 
to-day and another to-morrow, a third the next 
day, is the man whose influence on society is the 
least possible, and whose comfort and enjoyment 
must be very small indeed; whereas a man who 
23* 



94 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

has fixed and permanent principles in his soul 
within, and his life sustained, animated, and 
directed by them without, who is liberal to all that 
differ from him in details, but unbending and un- 
yielding in his maintenance of mighty truths, great 
principles, and doctrines, — such a man, even by 
those who cannot coincide with him, is nevertheless 
respected and revered : and fallen as humanity is, 
consistency and force of character still command 
its homage. 

Everything in the Gospel is fitted to fix our 
heart. The Bible is of all books the most decided. 
This has always been to me one of the subordinate 
proofs of its divine original. A man who is not 
sure will always speak in a subdued tone ; he will 
guess, he will hope, he will surmise, and suspect. 
But in the Bible we do not find anything of this 
kind. There is no vacillation, there is no appear- 
ance of uncertainty : the language of the Lord of 
Glory is, " You have heard it said, but I say unto 
you." The language of the prophet is, "Thus 
saith the Lord," " Thus it is written." The Apos- 
tle says, "I received of the Lord that which I deli- 
vered unto you." Let a witness be examined 
before a court of justice : if he hesitate or waver, 
you may be sure there is something in his testi- 
mony not perfectly sincere ; but when everything 
is stated with an unfaltering firmness, the impres- 
sion is forced upon your mind, he is speaking the 
words of conscious soberness and truth. So it is 
in the word of God : truths the most startling in 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 95 

their nature, are there pronounced to be unques- 
tionable and indisputable. Great facts, that ought 
by their nature to agitate and electrify all, are here 
stated in the simplest but at the same time the 
most decided language. Great doctrines, such as 
never dawned upon the minds of mankind, are here 
announced by the illiterate fishermen of Galilee, 
in such terms and in such a manner as to satisfy 
every rational inquirer, that "they spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost." And if, then, 
Christ spoke thus decidedly — if the Apostles wrote 
thus decidedly — if everything in the Bible is fixed 
and nothing is loose, for even what is non-essential 
or circumstantial, is large and comprehensive, not 
loose, — then let our hearts be fixed like the charter 
that contains their hopes, and let us pray that we 
too may be able to say with David, " Lord, my 
heart is fixed, my heart is fixed." 

Such fixity of principle, of feeling, of conviction, 
in one word, of " heart," is fitted, as has been 
proved on every occasion, to do the greatest good. 
That man is not the great benefactor of his age 
who has random and evanescent impulses of bene- 
volence in his heart, and who, under some power- 
ful impulse, makes a great sacrifice or does a noble 
deed: but he tells upon society — moulds and 
shapes mankind — makes himself to be felt while 
he says nothing — and causes his name to be secretly 
blessed though he knows it not, whose goodness is 
persistent, whose benevolence is a steady, accumu- 
lating force, growing in strength, in energy, and in 



96 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

devotion. That man who maintains what he 
knows to be right, and cleaves to it — who takes up 
the creed that he knows to be truth, and stands by 
it — who sees the duties that he feels to be divine, 
and holds by them in the storm, and in the sun- 
shine—whose love does not falter in the worst of 
circumstances, nor weary in the best, and whose 
creed, like his love, is not a thing to be changed 
bj r philosophers, or to be beaten down by contro- 
versialists, but fixed, immovable, and anchored, as 
it were, amid the attributes of Deity — such a man 
exercises an influence upon the world, that is felt 
by all around him, and he approximates while he 
exercises that influence to the great model set 
before him — Christ Jesus. What is more fixed, or 
more steady, or more persistent- — I speak of his 
example only, — than the whole life of our blessed 
Lord? Mark the fixity of purpose concentrated 
and embodied in these simple words, "My meat 
and my drink is to do the will of my Father which 
is in heaven ?'" What resolution, what fixity of 
purpose, is indicated in these words ! Notice, too, 
the very same trait in the Apostles. When they 
were menaced, and told they should be called upon 
to die for what they were doing — what was their 
answer ? If the world had had to deal with those 
men whose creeds, like the chameleon, take their 
colours from their convenience and from a conside- 
ration of the times, Christianity had perished in its 
cradle : but the Apostles, when thus threatened, 
had their hearts fixed, and therefore their minds 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 97 

were made up : their manly answer was, " "Whe- 
ther it be right to hearken unto you more than 
unto God, judge ye." And the Apostle Paul, 
when he was besought by those that loved him, 
and were anxious for his safety, not to go up to 
Jerusalem, he might have replied, "Well, I ought 
not lightly to peril a life that seems to be useful : I 
ought to respect the entreaties of my friends ; I 
ought not to break their hearts." But he did not 
say so ; he never thought of himself: the Apostle's 
labours were, in a measure, like the Redeemer's 
death, vicarious, "each stepping where his comrade 
stood the instant that he fell:" Paul therefore 
replied, " What mean ye to weep and break mine 
heart?" there was the sensibility of the man, but 
combined with it the fixity of heart of the Chris- 
tian; "I am ready not to be bound only, but also 
to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord 
Jesus." How beautifully does the sensibility of 
the human blend with the fixity of purpose of the 
heavenly ! a Christian will have all the sensibility 
of the man, for Christianity does not demand that 
we should be Stoics, or that we should kill human 
nature ; but then the sensibility of the man will be 
invigorated, and, at times, subdued by the mightier 
attractions of stronger motives, and of brighter 
hopes. What fixity of heart was there in John 
Knox, the child of another age ! If the Apostolic 
age was the golden, the Reformation age was the 
silver age of Christianity : this last had its defects, 
and Knox too had his, for it is too true, he did not 

I 



98 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

give up the persecuting lessons he had learnt, — 
but, with that single subtraction, he was a man of 
noble faith, devoted life, and especially of great 
" fixity of heart." Hence the Regent Morton pro- 
nounced the inscription for his tombstone, "Here 
lies the man who never feared the face of clay." 
"When Martin Luther was summoned before the 
Diet of Worms, and was told that if he entered 
that city he would be destroyed, as soon as he had 
crossed its threshold, his reply was, in his own 
stern Saxon way, "Though there be as many devils 
in Worms as there are tiles on the houses, yet I 
will go there." You will find, indeed, in every 
man who ever did the world any good, the great 
truth actualized, a heart fixed. 

Such fixity of heart is no mean element of the 
greatest happiness to ourselves. For instance, when 
one's heart is made up on this principle, that " God 
reigns," that whatever is done in providence he 
does — that we cannot make one hair of our own 
head white or black, or make to-morrow different 
to us in providence from what to-morrow is fixed 
to be — then what happiness does this give us ? So 
long as a man sees to-day chance, and to-morrow 
God, in what betides him; so long as he sees in 
this misfortune somebody's misconduct, and in that 
the misconduct of somebody else — so long he must 
be miserable. But when he can look above the 
smoke, and see the sunshine that illuminates all — 
when amid the din and roar of the revolving 
wheels of this world he can hear God's voice 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 99 

sounding above all, saying, " It is I — be not afraid," 
what happiness does he then feel ! What peace 
does he realize who is sure that God, whose 
omnipotence restrains all, has benevolence that will 
inspire all, and that all things work together for 
good to them that love him, and are the called 
according to his purpose ! "Well therefore does the 
Apostle say, " The man that wavereth is like a 
wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed !" 
and well does Isaiah say, " The wicked are like the 
troubled sea that cannot rest," but "the work of 
righteousness is quietness and assurance for ever." 
Fixity of principle, fixity of love, fixity of trust, 
fixity of hope, are followed by great peace, the 
peace which keepeth our hearts in the knowledge 
and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our 
Lord. 

This fixity of heart is specially demanded in the 
day in which we live. It has often been remarked, 
that every one is wont to say that his own age is 
the worst ; but I am sure that there never was an 
age in which everything was more rocked and 
shaken and convulsed than the present, in which 
so many things that were the construction of ages 
were pulled to pieces in a day — in which subjects 
that were formerly treated with respect and reve- 
rence became so speedily, many of them, the objects 
of contempt, and all of them, the subjects of a 
new ordeal. Never before were things so floating 
and so driven about by the restless waves of a rest- 
less and an agitated world. Never was there a day 



100 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

in which scepticism was so busy, and all vile and 
pernicious principles were so steadily and perseve- 
ringly propagated, or so ably and splendidly advo- 
cated as the present ; and if ever therefore there was 
a time when we should have fixed principles, fixed 
affections, fixed trusts, fixed hopes, it is that in 
which we live. Let me then ask you to make up 
your minds what is truth, and then cleave to that 
conviction : make up your minds that this is God's 
book, that these are God's truths, that it is indeed 
the very Gospel, and then standby it; and so 
standing you will not only realize the peace that 
flows from within, but you will exercise an amount 
of beneficent influence which will tend to the glory 
of God, and be conducive to the interest of souls. 
But let me entreat you, my reader, and every 
reader, not to let your heart be fixed upon anything 
unworthy. In reference to all that is subordinate 
in the Gospel or in the Church, have preference, 
decided preference if you like, but let your heart 
be absolutely fixed upon great, eternal, and essen- 
tial truths. It must not be the fixity of bigotry or 
of pride, or of passion, or exclusiveness ; we must 
be in non-essentials yielding as the osier or the 
willow before the evening zephyr; in essentials, 
riveted and fixed as the gnarled oak, whose fibres 
are entwined amid the rocks, and whose lofty head 
stands beautiful in the sunshine, and majestic amid 
the storm. You must in all things be most liberal, 
but never dare to be latitudinarian. Concede, by 
all means, the largest prejudice if it will do a brother 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 101 

good ; but compromise not one vital principle on 
which your heart is fixed in the sight of God. Fixity 
in all that is essential ; looseness, if you like, liberal- 
ity certainly, in all that is non-essential. I care not 
so much if a brother belong to another church, if he 
belong to Christ. I care not so much that he wor- 
ships in another form, if he worships " in spirit 
and in truth." You have your preference ; retain 
your preference, be thankful for what you believe 
a privilege, and show that you have a superior form, 
if you so think, by showing that it has cherished 
in you superior character, liberality, and love. In 
the language of a very ancient Christian writer, 
"In essential things unity, in non-essential things 
liberty, in all things charity." Fixed let us be in 
resistance to Satan, fixed in antagonism to sin, 
fixed in seeking salvation as the great end of our 
being; fixed in our maintenance of truth; fixed 
in exhibiting holiness as the greatest happiness ; 
fixed in preaching the Bible, making known the 
Gospel, and winning souls. The last thing surely 
that should be left loose and unsettled is your own 
everlasting state in the sight of God. Why, what 
are seventy years of time compared with seventy 
times seventy millions of millions of years in eter- 
nity ? and is it not a most strange thing — an almost 
unintelligible thing, upon any other supposition 
than this, that man's heart is altogether perverted 
and diseased; that he should fix, everything upon 
earth, his property, his relationships, his business, 
his prospects, his connexions, but leave loose, un- 
24 i2 



102 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

determined, unsettled this great question, " Is 
eternity to be happiness or woe to me?" Those 
whose minds are not made up upon this will be 
charged at the judgment-seat with the most sinful 
inconsistency. If you had any suspicion that you 
were labouring under some fatal disease, you would 
not leave an eminent physician's house unvisited 
till he had given you his opinion whether that dis- 
ease were fatal or not ; and when you thus care 
about the body (and about which you justly care, 
for the anxiety you show is perfectly proper), all 
that I ask of you is, if you thus care for the casket 
should you not think something about the safety 
of the gem that is within ? If we are thus anxious 
about the tenement should we not think something 
of its immortal inhabitant, which is not extinguished 
when its tent is struck, but only changes a tempo- 
rary for an eternal habitation ? There is not a 
merchant in the city who does not know at this 
moment, or if he does not is very restless till he 
does know, whether he is solvent or not. It is 
strange then that we who are born insolvents and 
bankrupt in spiritual and eternal things, will not 
take the unsearchable riches of Christ that will 
make us rich for time and for eternity. If it were, 
however, impossible thus to fix the heart, or if it 
w T ere a very difficult matter, I should not urge it 
so much ; but it is not impossible ; thousands have 
thus fixed their hearts. It is not difficult : you 
have only to look the greatest difficulty in the face, 
and it disappears. Never forget this, that difficulty 



THE communicant's heart. 103 

is great in proportion to its distance ; and danger 
is great in proportion to our ignorance of it. "When 
you meet the difficulty, it is frightened, not you; 
if you have a fixed heart when you meet the 
danger, it gives way, not you ; and if you will ask 
the Holy Spirit of God to teach you, and lead you, 
and guide you, you too will be able to say with 
David, " God, my heart is fixed, my heart is 
fixecl. ,, 

It is with such hearts I bid my people come to 
the Lord's table. All I have said is to help every 
one to fulfil the Apostle's prescription, " Let a man 
examine himself." When you come to that table, 
can you say this, " Lord, my love I feel often to 
be cold, nr) 7 heart to be often as an icicle, my mind 
beset with prejudices, my hands too full of this 
world's business, my trials often too crushing for 
me, not because they are so heavy, but because my 
heart has so little of thy love, thy strength, thy 
spirit within it; but, God, this I can say, that 
my heart is fixed on this, that to love thee is my 
greatest duty, to know thee my greatest privilege, 
to trust in thee my greatest peace ; and that I look 
for a heaven not ouly where there shall be no more 
care, nor trouble, nor trials, but where there shall 
be no more sin, as the sweetest, brightest, dearest 
hope, that is vouchsafed to me here below. I can 
say this, that though I am very far from what I 
ought to be, there can be no doubt about the side 
on which I am ; all my sympathies are with thee, 
all my affections thirst to be concentrated upon 



104 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

thee ; and if the question were asked me from the 
judgment-seat, '"Who is on the Lord's side?' with 
all my conscious coldness, and feebleness, and 
weakness, this I do know, and am sure of, that I 
am on Christ's side, and I would sacrifice all rather 
than be found otherwise." I have heard many 
persons complain that they have not that ardour 
of feeling in reference to God that they think they 
ought to have ; their complaint is just, but let us 
never forget that there is here a distinction ; there 
may be love in principle when there is very little 
love in passion. Love may be in some minds a 
principle, in others a passion. For instance, your 
love to your parent is not a consistent, ardent, 
enthusiastic, filial love, of which you are ever con- 
scious as a burning feeling. It is often said, the 
moment a man knows he has a heart, it is a sign 
that he has some disease in it : so it is with love to 
your parents. As the perfect action of the heart 
or the healthy part of the lungs is almost imper- 
ceptible, so love to our parents is not mere enthusi- 
astic excitement — which would be evanescent : it 
is a vital principle; and let something call into 
play the love we bear to our parents — let them be 
placed in danger or in difficulties — then, if we have 
any love at all, it will show itself; it will then be 
seen whether we have affection to our parents or 
not. It is so in some degree with love to God ; 
there may not be that depth and ardour of love 
which there should be, which is assurance, and 
therefore happiness, if we have it : but you can say 



THE COMMUNICANT'S HEART. 105 

this, that cold as your love is, wavering as your 
trust is, vacillating as your affections are, you would 
not part, if called upon to do it, with the little 
Christianity you have for ten thousand worlds. 
"Were one to offer you ten thousand pounds to 
burn the Bible, resign your place at Church, and 
cast Christianity to the winds — then would you 
show by your burning rejection of the bribe that 
you have a love to God that no earthly temptation 
can dissolve, nor all the seductions of the world 
prevail to extinguish. Can you say that, however 
cold your love, however feeble your faith, however 
sickly your affections, you more than hope, you 
believe that you are in the fold of Christ, that you 
do belong to him, that you glory in his cross, that 
your greatest happiness is in knowing him and 
loving him, and that it is your greatest sorrow that 
you cannot love him as you would, nor serve him 
as you ought ? • If this be your feeling, come to 
that table> for "He will not break the bruised 
reed, nor quench the smoking flax;" he will 
strengthen you if you come in obedience to his 
will. 

24* 



106 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



VII. 

THE PASSOVER LAMB AND FEAST, OR, CHRIST AND 
THE COMMUNION. 

Bread of the world in mercy broken, 
Wine of the soul in mercy shed, 
By whom the words of life were spoken, 
And in whose death our sins are dead. 

Look on the heart by sorrow broken, 
Look on the tears by sinners shed, 
And be thy feast to us the token, 
That by thy grace our souls are fed. 

"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us : Therefore let us keep 
the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of 
malice and wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of 
sincerity and truth. " — 1 Cor. v. 7, 8. 

It is plain that there is in the words at the head 
of this chapter, undisputed reference to a memo- 
rable transaction in the history of Israel; that 
transaction is recorded in the book of Exodus, and 
as it is extremely interesting, as well as instructive, 
especially in connection with our subject, I will 
transcribe it. 

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in 
the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be 
unto you the beginning of months ; it shall be the 
first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 10T 

the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth 
day of this month they shall take to them every 
man a lamb, according to the house of their 
fathers, a lamb for an house : and if the household 
be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour 
next unto his house take it according to the num- 
ber of the souls ; every man according to his eating 
shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb 
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year ; 
ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the 
goats : and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth 
day of the same month ; and the whole assembly 
of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the 
evening. And they shall take of the blood, and 
strike it on the two side-posts and on the upper 
door-post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. 
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast 
with fire, and unleavened bread ; and with bitter 
herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor 
sodden at all with water, but roast with fire ; his 
head with his legs, and with the purtenance 
thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain 
until the morning ; and that which remaineth of it 
until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And 
thus shall ye eat it : with your loins girded, your 
shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand ; 
and ye shall eat it in haste ; it is the Lord's pas- 
sover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt 
this night, and will smite all the first-born in the 
land of Egypt, both man and beast ; and against 
all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment : I 



108 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a 
token upon the houses where ye are, and when I 
see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague 
shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite 
the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto 
you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to 
the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall 
keep it a feast by an ordinance forever." — Exodus 
xii. 1—14. 

Such is the simple record of this memorable 
transaction, the great details of which are, I doubt 
not, familiar to all. Pharaoh, and those that were 
around his throne, were determined not to let the 
children of Israel escape out of the land of Egypt. 
God had a purpose stronger than Pharaoh's, and 
he resolved that the children of Israel should 
escape, and that Pharaoh himself should acquiesce 
in that escape ; we read accordingly of successive 
judgments poured upon the obdurate and resistant 
monarch. First, the waters of the river, regarded 
as the national god, were turned into blood before 
his people's eyes. Next, all the cattle were smitten 
with pestilence and disease ; the very dust beneath 
their feet, on which they trod, was quickened into 
hostility against them; and yet, notwithstanding 
these so manifest judgments from heaven, Phara- 
oh's heart grew harder, and his determination not 
to let Israel go became, if possible, more fixed. 
God, then, according to his plans, having seen all 
these judgments fail, resolved to employ a yet 
severer one, that should pierce an avenue to every 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 109 

heart, and find its response in the depths of human 
nature, and therefore succeed where all besides had 
failed, in rousing Pharaoh to submission and a 
sense of duty. He commanded an angel, in the 
depth and stillness of the night, to spread his wings 
upon the wind, and move through every street the 
most public, and every alley the most sequestered, 
and breathe into every house in which a first-born 
Egyptian was, and in one hour, in one instant, to 
fill every home with lamentation and weeping over 
the first-born struck dead. This he did. It was a 
night not soon to be forgotten ; and the recollection 
of it was to be kept, we are told, a memorial for 
ever. In that night, so disastrous in the experience 
of Egypt, when one family seeing no symptoms 
of disease the day before, saw the first-born fade in 
an instant like a flower frost-smitten, and when 
each family rushed forth to seek sympathy from its 
neighbour, and met its neighbour rushing to seek 
sympathy from it, the suddenness, and speed, and 
intensity of the stroke, must have made them feel 
the catastrophe only the more terrible. One wild 
shriek rose from every Egyptian home that night, 
and the sun dawned upon a land filled with sorrow 
and lamentation and mourning. But in the midst 
of this havoc, there was one great exception, one 
class which was spared. Every Egyptian house- 
hold had its first-born smitten, from the king upon 
the throne downward to the meanest of his cap- 
tives: but Israel's first-born sons were spared; and 
the reason of their being spared was not, we are 

K 



110 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

told, their national existence, but their personal 
acceptance of, and interest in the shed blood of the 
lamb that they had slain. Each Israelite was com- 
manded to take a lamb ; each home or family a 
lamb and slay it, and sprinkle its blood upon the 
lintels and door-posts of the house, and they were 
told that when the angel w T ent through Egypt, he 
should not dare to enter one single house, however 
mean or poor, on the lintel or door-post of which, 
he saw T sprinkled the blood of this lamb. I can 
easily conceive the mingled feelings and emotions 
of Israel that night. I can conceive that, knowing 
the judgment, and having adopted the defence, 
some doubted that evening if even the blood would 
shield them, and as they doubted, their dread of 
the approaching night became more terrible; but I 
can conceive that there mingled with that dread 
the recollection that the God of Israel had ever 
been true to his promise, and the hope that He 
would even then be their refuge : and when morn- 
ing dawned, the safety that they tasted awoke 
songs of gratitude and joy, such as had never been 
heard in Egypt before. It seems to me that we 
have an instructive lesson in all this. If Christ be 
our passover, a Christian's safety is not shaken by 
the fears, the doubts, the dismay that he sometimes 
feels. The fears of the inhabitant within did not 
make the angel cross the blood-besprinkled thresh- 
old, and smite him. The safety of the Israelite 
rested not upon the strength of his faith, nor upon 
the intensity of his peace, but upon the naked fact 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. Ill 

that the blood was sprinkled on the threshold. So 
it is, blessed be God, with us. When yon begin 
to fear that you will not be saved, your salvation is 
not shaken in the least degree by that. When you 
begin to be agitated, perplexed, and alarmed, you 
dishonour God, and injure your own peace, but 
your safety rests upon the naked, simple fact, that 
Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. 

" Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," in 
other words, Christ Jesus and him crucified is the 
great passover of Christians. But let us look at 
this history. Was it a lamb that was selected? 
Christ is constantly spoken of as " a lamb without 
spot" — "a lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world " — " he was led as a lamb to the slaughter " 
— "ye were redeemed by the precious blood of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot." In the 
case of Israel it was the literal blood of a literal lamb 
sprinkled on the literal or physical door-post that 
secured to Israel a literal deliverance from physical 
or bodily death. The parallel is complete. It is 
the efficacy of the blood of Jesus sprinkled on the 
hearts of his people by faith that secures to them 
a spiritual deliverance from spiritual death, and all 
the effects of sin for ever and ever. The angel of 
death passes through our land day after day in the 
shape of consumption, sickness, and disease of 
every description. Every swing of the pendulum 
sends a soul to the judgment bar. When we meet 
in church at eleven, before the service closes, 
hundreds and thousands throughout the world shall 



112 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

have been summoned to the dread tribunal of God. 
In this vast metropolis a thousand per week, or 
about a hundred and fifty per day, pass to the 
judgment-seat of Christ. We need no angel, like 
the angel who devastated Egypt, to pass through 
the land and smite us ; there is a constant current 
of immortal souls rushing to the judgment-seat of 
God ; therefore, the question occurs to us, if the 
angel of death thus moves with unwearied wing, 
and if there are mown down day by day hundreds 
upon hundreds who are borne to the judgment-seat 
of Christ — what is their trust ? what is their hope 
of deliverance ? Is it the blood of the Lamb, or 
is it something that supersedes, or that conceals it, 
or is made a substitute for it? Nothing is our 
safety but the blood of Jesus, that is our faith in 
Christ, our personal interest in this fact, that his 
blood cleanseth from all sin — our personal acqui- 
escence in it expressed to God when no ear can 
hear but his — this is our salvation without money 
and without price, and never to be taken away. 
It is not baptism that saves us ; it was not circum- 
cision that saved the children of Israel ; it is not 
a new heart that saves us, precious as a new heart 
is, true as it is, that except a man be born again he 
cannot see the kingdom of God. Yet it is not the 
new heart that is our safety in the sight of God. 
When the angel passed through Egypt he never 
looked into the interior of the house ; he did not 
try to ascertain if they were rich men or poor men, 
or good men or wicked men, or unregenerate or 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 113 

regenerate men ; the mark that arrested his regard 
and repelled his touch, was simply, exclusively, the 
blood of the lamb sprinkled on the lintel. It is 
true, u except a man be born again he cannot see 
the kingdom of God;" true it is, "go and teach 
all nations, baptizing them ;" but it is no less true 
that neither the one nor the other is our safety. 
Our safety rests on this fact alone, Christ Jesus is 
our passover, — his blood is upon our consciences, 
— his sacrifice is accepted by us. But you say, how 
can his blood reach our consciences? I answer, 
when I speak of the blood of Jesus, I do not mean 
his literal blood. I doubt not that some of that 
precious blood, when the spear pierced his side, 
and when the thorns tore his brow, fell upon the 
soldiers below, and sprinkled them, but without 
exerting any saving efficacy; and if at this moment 
the literal blood of the Lamb that was crucified on 
Calvary were preserved in the midst of our land, 
reverence to Jesus would lead us to bury it in the 
earth. It has no efficacy, it could have no virtue. 
"What I mean by the blood of Christ is his atoning 
death, — his dying, that we might live — his suffer- 
ing, that we might rejoice ; and what I mean by 
salvation is the acceptance of this truth, that he 
bore our sins and carried our sorrows, that by his 
stripes we are healed, and that his blood cleanseth 
from all sin, and that Christ our passover is sacri- 
ficed for us. We cannot make this too plain or 
too distinct, Precious, I say, as the new heart is, 
precious as it is to be new men, essential pre- 
25 K 2 



. 114 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

requisites as these are to the kingdom of heaven, 
yet these are not the ground of our safety, or the 
element of our deliverance. It is exclusively, and, 
blessed be God, it is sufficiently and completely, 
the blood of Jesus Christ our Passover. 

But let me notice a distinction. It was of no 
use that the Israelite family killed the lamb, or that 
they feasted on its flesh, if they did not sprinkle 
the blood upon the door-posts. It was no safety 
to them that a lamb was slain in the midst of them ; 
the safety to them that night was the blood 
sprinkled by the persons within upon the threshold 
without. It is no less true that it is to us only an 
aggravation of our guilt, and not an element of 
deliverance, that Christ has been sacrificed, if we 
do not personally, each for himself, in the depths 
of his heart, lay hold of the blessed efficacy of that 
blood as the only ground of deliverance ; and lay 
it before God's throne as the only hope of our 
safety; and seek salvation for no reason in the 
heights above, or in the depths below, but on this 
account alone, that Christ our Passover has been 
sacrificed for us. That blood was to the Israelites 
the pledge of safety during the night, the hope of 
deliverance when the morning should dawn. This 
better blood is the ground of our safety now, and 
the foundation of our hopes of admission into not 
literal Canaan, but that better land where perils 
shall be no more. If this then be true, that Christ 
is the antitype of the paschal lamb, or that which 
takes the place of the type that has faded, we here- 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 115 

by ascertain the true meaning to be attached to 
the death of our Lord. Was the immolation of 
the paschal lamb a propitiatory sacrifice ? Can it 
be said by any man reading the Bible, in the pos- 
session of common sense, that the lamb was slain 
as an example ? We know that it was no example 
of anything on earth. It is never referred to as an 
example. There is nothing in it that we are called 
upon to copy, or to imitate. It was slain simply 
and plainly as a sacrifice. And the Greek word 
which is here translated "sacrifice," means to kill 
or slay as a victim for sacrificial purposes. If this 
be so we must infer that the death of Christ was 
also a sacrifice. The passover lamb was ever after- 
wards slain in the temple in the place of sacri- 
fice; it was slain by the competent priests, and 
after the sacrifice its blood was poured out as an 
offering, to indicate that it was meant to be a sacri- 
fice. God's great design in this as w T ell as in other 
kindred institutions of the Mosaic law, was to rivet 
upon the hearts of mankind, this lesson, which 
they were slow to learn, that without shedding of 
blood there could be no remission of sins. If 
Christ be the antitype of the paschal lamb, Christ 
died as a sacrifice for us. His death was expiatory 
and atoning. He was there not as an example 
of a martyr's patience, or a monument of a 
martyr's suffering, but he was there as the great 
sin-bearer of the world — he was made a curse for 
us, a propitiation for our sins, and he bare our sins 
in his own body on the tree ; on him were laid the 
iniquities of us all. It seems to me utterly impos- 



116 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

sible to read the New Testament without coming 
to the conclusion, so clearly indicated throughout, 
that Christ's death was that of a sacrifice. If it 
was not, the whole language of the New Testament 
is eminently exaggerated, and singularly calculated 
to mislead. The blood of Christ is said to cleanse 
from sin : we are said to have redemption through 
his blood: we have access to God by his blood. 
He is declared to be our Passover ; we are redeemed 
by him ; all which language is that which describes 
sacrifice. If his death was not a vicarious and 
atoning sacrifice, all the language of the New 
Testament is plainly fitted to mislead us. 

But, it may be asked, perhaps, was this sacrificial 
death of the Lord Jesus Christ inevitably necessary ? 
It was, but not, as some have imagined, to make 
God love us. This was not the end of Christ's 
death. This would imply a change on God's part, 
which would be inconsistent with the attributes of 
him who is unchangeable. Christ died not to make 
God love them he hated, but Christ died because 
God so loved them who hated him. It was out of 
love to sinners that he gave his only-begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish 
but have everlasting life. Yet many persons have 
the common notion, that Christ is the ground on 
which they draw near to God in order to get the 
wrath of the Deity turned into love. Such is not 
an evangelical truth. On the contrary, Christ died 
not only to be the channel through which God's 
love must reach me, but he died to be to ni<j a 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 117 

living aud lasting expression of the height and 
depth of that love which gave him to die for me. 
It was necessary that Christ should die, not to 
make God love me, but to express God's love to 
me, and to form a channel for the outpouring of 
that love which could not otherwise reach me. If 
God's love had expressed itself in forgiveness to 
me without an atonement, his justice would have 
been dishonoured, his truth contradicted, his holi- 
ness outraged, and the universe would have learned 
the lesson that sin and holiness have no essential 
and eternal distinction, and that God's law is a 
make-believe, and his menaces mere words; but 
because of Christ's death it comes to pass that 
God's holiness is vindicated in the most glorious 
manner, whilst his love expresses itself in the rich- 
est and most precious results. By Christ's death 
it comes to pass that God is now just while he jus- 
tifies the guilty that believe on him, holy while he 
accepts to his bosom the unholy that repent ; and 
that his law is fixed as the attributes of him that 
made it, whilst the violators of that law are for- 
given their violation, and received into friendship 
and communion with himself. And thus the 
sacrifice and death of Christ is the only channel 
through which the forgiving mercies and the en- 
riching love of our Father can reach us ; and any 
one that applies to God for mercy and forgiveness 
in any other name applies through the wrong chan- 
nel; or upon any other footing, makes application 
where the door is shut, and no knocking can secure 
25* 



118 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

its being opened ; but whenever, in the deep sense 
of his ruin, feeling that all on his part is lost and 
forfeited for ever, he draws near to God, and prays 
that he may be spared from everlasting death, and 
admitted into the realms of everlasting glory, only 
and wholly through the shed blood and precious 
sacrifice of the Lamb of God, heaven and earth 
may pass away, God may deny himself, but he 
cannot deny salvation to such an applicant. 

But it is here said, Christ was sacrificed "for us." 
For whom ? Not one need be excluded. There 
was not a single family in Israel, constituting the 
visible church, that might not slay its lamb and 
sprinkle its blood upon the threshold ; and there 
is not one soul in the universe to whom Christ our 
passover is refused, or who may not this very day 
receive all the blessings of the purchase of that 
precious blood. If any of my readers perish, it is 
not want of efficacy in the blood of Jesus, but want 
of confidence in it on our part ; it is not any want 
of sufficiency in his sacrifice, but it is want of faith 
in the reception of it into our hearts. It is want 
of trust, not want of efficacy, in the blood of Jesus. 
It is our suspicion, not his unwillingness, that is our 
ruin : Christ has been sacrificed, in his blood there 
is efficacy to cleanse from all the sins of a thousand 
worlds, and to reconcile to himself all the souls of 
ten thousand times the number of the inhabitants 
of this. The only reason that one soul perishes is 
because that soul will not believe the word of God, 
and personally acquiesce in the provisions of his 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 119 

glorious and blessed Gospel. But those whose 
trust is in that precious blood are safe as if they 
were embosomed amid the attributes of Deity: 
those who feel the effect of his blood sprinkled on 
their hearts can never be moved. The 91st Psalm 
and all the promises of God may be written on the 
lintels on which the blood is sprinkled. You may 
hear the rush of the angel's wing as he sweeps by 
to the havoc, but that noise shall be music to you. 
You may hear the thunders and see the lightnings 
of Sinai, but they cannot touch you ; neither life, 
nor death, nor height, nor depth, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor any other creature, dare touch 
the soul that is cleansed in this blood, or injure the 
prospects of him that puts his trust in Christ our 
passover sacrificed for us. 

I have thus described the sacrifice offered, and 
the safety it secures. Let us never forget what I 
have stated, that the only, the exclusive element 
of our safety and deliverance is nothing in us, 
nothing by us, but Christ's sacrifice for us. And, 
secondly, that as that blood, the blood of the lamb, 
was not washed off the lintels of his house by the 
fears, the trembling, the doubts of the Israelite 
within, so the efficacy of the blood of Christ our 
Passover, and our safety by its virtue, is not shaken 
by the fears, the doubts, the anxieties that may 
spring up in our heart. Do not think when a 
a cloud overcasts it that the glorious luminary of 
noon is extinguished ; it is only a little fog, and 



120 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

the fervour of his beams will soon melt and dissi- 
pate it. Do not think that the world is convulsed 
when one of its inhabitants trembles. Do not 
believe that God's promise fails because our weak, 
wavering hearts sometimes doubt and distrust 
them. I believe the great cause of all our fears, 
anxieties, and despair, and doubts and perplexities, 
is that we think God like ourselves. His thoughts 
are not our thoughts, nor his ways ours. His love 
is large as immensity, enduring as eternity, un- 
changeable as his throne. If my salvation were 
to depend upon my frames and feelings and 
strength of faith and warmth of love, for a single 
hour, I should be lost for ever. But when my 
heart faints and my flesh fails, and doubts cloud 
my mind, and difficulties cramp my heart, I 
instantly recollect the glorious foundation, and say, 
" Well, let it be so ;" it is the shivering and trem- 
bling of the poor tenant; the blood is on the 
lintel, the angel of death will see it, and unworthy 
as I am he dare not touch me. " Christ our pass- 
over is sacrificed for us." 

I have spoken of the sacrifice; let me now speak 
of what was strictly and properly the feast that 
followed upon the sacrifice. We read in the inte- 
resting and beautiful account of the first passover 
recorded in Exodus, that after the lamb had been 
slain, and its blood was sprinkled on the lintel, — 
which was the sacrifice — the flesh of this lamb was 
roasted in the house, and partaken of by all the 
inhabitants of that house, as the feast which fol- 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 121 

lowed the sacrifice. I wish this to be special]} 7 
attended to. There is an important distinction. 
In the passover as it is commemorated in the book 
of Exodus, and in every subsequent passover in 
the land of Israel, there were two parts. One part 
was in the first instance the sacrifice of the lamb, 
the sprinkling of its blood upon the lintel, or pour- 
ing it out as an offering ; and the second part was 
the roasting of its flesh — the family, with bitter 
herbs and with unleavened bread, participating of 
that roasted flesh. The first, or the sacrifice of the 
lamb, was their deliverance; the second, or the 
feast upon the sacrifice of the lamb, was the per- 
sonal acceptance and grateful recognition of that 
deliverance. The first w r as the safety, the second 
was the nutriment received by the Israelite, arising 
wholly and solely from that safety. Now the Jews 
had to do both : first, to make the sacrifice or shed 
the blood of the inoffensive lamb, by which they 
were delivered from death ; and secondly, they had 
to prepare the feast, and feed upon the flesh of the 
lamb that had been slain. In other words, the 
ancient Israelite had all the pain that must have 
been occasioned by the first, or the slaughter of the 
lamb, and also they had all the pleasure that must 
have followed on the second, or the feeding upon 
the flesh that had been roasted. Now in our case 
we have but one part. Christ took to himself all 
the painful part when he shed his blood, and en- 
dured the curse, and bare our sins. Thus the 
sacrificial part is finished, and there can be nothing 

L 



122 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

added to its efficacy or subtracted from its virtue. 
But the second part, or the festival after the sacri- 
fice, he bequeathed to us. Christ took to himself 
the painful, and has left for us, as his legacy, the 
pleasant only. Hence when we draw near to the 
Lord's supper, we come there not to a sacrifice — 
that was finished on the cross, — but to the festival 
which follows after the sacrifice, and which is to be 
continued till he comes again. Christ fought the 
battle, we wear the laurels ; Christ emptied the 
cup of all its bitterness, we drink the sweets with 
which he filled it ; Christ had the agony of treading 
the wine-press alone, we have the pleasure of 
drinking that new wine in the kingdom of our 
Father. His was all the pain, ours is all the plea- 
sure. He wept as the Man of Sorrows, and suf- 
fered as the victim ; we are invited, as redeemed 
and delivered, to come to a communion table, and 
celebrate a festival of joy, commemorative of the 
most glorious transaction that ever occurred in the 
history of the universe of God. 

Now if these things be so, w T e see what are the 
right view's which we ought to entertain when we 
approach the communion table. There is a feeling 
or presentiment of terror in the minds of many 
about the Lord's supper, which is most unchristian 
and most unscriptural. There are, in the minds 
of not a few, associations and impressions on the 
nature of the Lord's supper, of the most terrific 
description. They put on their gloomiest apparel 
on its occurrence, and come with sorrowful and 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 123 

heavy hearts. They come to it as to a funeral or 
a sacrifice, to something awful, terrible, and repul- 
sive. Their idea seems to be that God waits there 
to see if he can find any one drooping, or faltering, 
in order instantly to let fall upon him consuming 
and desolating judgment. If that were the Lord's 
supper, I should have no comfort or encouragement 
in inviting any one to come to it. But it is not so. 
All the curse has been exhausted, and blessings 
only have been left. All the agony has been borne, 
and only the joy remains. Christ bore all the pain 
when, as a priest, a sacrifice, a victim, he died upon 
the cross ; and he has bequeathed us the precious, 
the inestimable privilege of gathering round the 
table, on which there is no wrath, and over which 
there is only the covenant rainbow that surrounds 
the throne of our reconciled Father and our loving 
God, and taking into our hands these memorials 
as our evidence and protestation to the universe, 
that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. 
We read that when the Israelites celebrated the 
first passover, they ate it with their loins girt, as 
men prepared for action ; each with his staff in his 
hand, ready to begin his pilgrimage through the 
desert to the land of promise. Even so are we to 
draw near to the Lord's table ; this act is a profes- 
sion of our readiness to begin our exodus from 
Egypt. It is a declaration that we are prepared 
not to be conformed to this world, as far as this 
world is in antagonism to the mind and spirit of 
God. We publicly declare that w T hat is sinful we 



124 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

hereby solemnly renounce, as the Israelites re- 
nounced Egypt of old, and that what is promised 
we hereby hope for according to the promises of 
God. We come to that table as pilgrims and 
strangers, as our fathers were, declaring our belief 
that this world, even in its sunniest spots, is not 
our home, and that we look for a city which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 
Was it any sorrow to the Israelite to forsake Egypt 
and turn his face to the land of promise ? Do I 
address any one who has ever found perfect peace 
and satisfaction in this world? Is there any true 
Christian w T ho does not feel that one will never 
know what perfect peace is, till he has reached that 
land of perfect holiness where alone perfect happi- 
ness is ? Is there any true Christian who would 
abide in this world as it is for ever and ever? The 
wonder should be that believers do not long for 
that summons which lifts them from the world 
that now is, and wafts them, as on angels' wings, 
to that world that will be. It is because we have 
got an impression, as believers even, that death is 
the extinction of the loved, the dear, and the near. 
It is no such thing. Death is but the soul casting 
off the shroud that represses it, that it may unfurl 
its wings, and rise to realms of endless sunshine 
and perpetual peace. I have no doubt that the 
spirits of the pious dead, if permitted to see the 
home in which their remains lie preparatory to 
burial, would say to their sorrowing relatives, if 
they could be allowed to speak, " Weep not for us, 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 125 

weep for yourselves ; we find it true, Blessed are 
the dead that die in the Lord ; our labours are 
finished, our pilgrimage is done ; come up hither, 
and follow us, and them that through faith inherit 
the promises.' ' 

It is stated also that the Israelites were to cele- 
brate this passover without leaven. The Apostle 
explains what this means, "with the unleavened 
bread of sincerity and truth. " And the Apostle 
Peter explains the meaning of it further — "Laying 
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and 
envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes 
desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may 
grow thereby:" "Let all bitterness, and wrath, 
and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put 
away from you, with all malice. Be ye kind one 
to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, 
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 
This is the suitable preparation for the Lord's 
supper ; the best preparation for the Lord's supper 
is not a face screwed into unison with the aspect 
of a particular denomination, nor the utterance of 
some favourite shibboleth, nor the assumption of 
a form on that day, more sedate or melancholy 
than on others, but the unleavened bread of sin- 
cerity and of truth. It is laying aside all malice, 
guile, evil speaking, hypocrisy, envy, and all 
uncharitableness. And let all bitterness, and 
wrath, and anger, and clamour, be put away from 
you, and be ye tender-hearted, forgiving one 
26 l2 



126 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

another, even as God for Christ's sake hath for- 
given you. 

This supper was to be celebrated in every house, 
and by every family. In other words, it was a 
social and domestic, but sacred meal. The Lord's 
supper is really so ; it is not a priest administering 
the sacrament to the Church, but it is the whole 
congregation seating themselves as priests unto 
God around their Father's table, and eating the 
bread he has given them, and drinking of the wine 
that he has mingled. It is not the minister admi- 
nistering the sacrament to any, as a priest to the 
laity ; it is the congregation of kings and priests 
unto God that surround their Father's table, and 
take w T hat Christ has given them, without any 
intermediate party, as the commemoration of his 
death, and sacrifice, and suffering for us. Are you 
sincere in your attachment to Jesus? Are you 
trusting in him as your only passover sacrifice? 
Are you washed in his precious blood? Are you 
free from prejudice and passion, and ill-will and 
evil-speaking, and malice, and uncharitableness ? 
Are you tender-hearted, forgiving one another? 
Are you among the pure in heart, the meek, them 
that hunger and thirst after righteousness ? Come 
then, not, however, leaning upon this, as if this 
were your title, but leaning upon this fact alone, 
that that table and your consciences are sprinkled 
with the blood of the Lamb, and that God is your 
Father, you his children, and so no destroying 
angel may dare to scathe you. 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 127 

Do you feel that you belong to the family of 
God ? I do not ask for the depth of your faith, I 
ask only after its sincerity. I do not ask after the 
extent and attainments of your Christianity, but I 
ask, is it real ? Can you now say, that if the angel 
of death were to sweep through this land, you have 
but one single fact on which you dare trust, and 
that fact is, that " Christ our Passover is sacrificed 
for us?" and are you so satisfied that this fact is 
real, that you can peril your everlasting prospect 
for death, and judgment, and eternity upon it? 
Let us have our minds clear upon this. It is the 
greatest glory to God, and it will be the greatest 
peace to your own conscience, it will be the ele- 
ment of the intensest joy, when we can simply 
realize this great fact, "Blessed be God, my accept- 
ance at his throne is not contingent on the strength 
of my faith, or upon the intensity of my joy, or 
upon the purity of my feelings — precious as these 
are in their place ; but it is contingent upon this 
— nay, it is not contingency, but it is fixed, and 
sure, and founded upon this, that Christ my Pas- 
sover has been sacrificed for me." 

Come thus to the table of the Lord ; come to 
that table, not to observe an interesting rite which 
has been handed down in ecclesiastial history; jiot 
as to a decent, beautiful, and Scriptural formality ; 
but come to it as the sequel of Calvary. Suppose 
that the Son of God still hung upon the cross ; 
suppose that those precious accents still rung in 



128 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

your ears, "It is finished;" suppose that the eclipse 
that covered all the land had just passed away; and 
suppose that you knew that that blood which had 
been there shed could cleanse a universe from more 
than a universe's sins ; and then suppose that you 
were called upon to surround this table as the 
sequel to that fact, the joy after Christ has drunk 
the bitterness ; to taste the wine after he has trod 
the wine-press, — to wear the laurels after he has 
fought the battle, and gained the victory ; with 
what delight, with what gratitude, w 7 ith what joy 
would you approach it, feeling it to be the expres- 
sion of personal faith, by which and at which you 
say, " I take this bread and drink this wine just to 
let the world know, in obedience to the mind of 
God, that my whole trust is upon the passover 
sacrificed for me, and my deliverance and hope of 
happiness and acceptance before God, upon the 
blood that has been sprinkled upon me ; and I now 
take this bread and this w T ine to show that I, per- 
sonally, individually, in my heart and conscience, 
appropriate, and personally rest upon, that sacri- 
fice, and seek heaven and happiness wholly and 
solely through its efficacy. " So we come to the 
Lord's table, to a most solemn, indeed, but to a 
most beautiful and glorious act. the remainder, as 
it were, of Calvary, the sequel to the sacrifice, the 
participation together of the joys that have been 
purchased and procured at so great a price. The 
wonder to me is, not that so many recoil from 



THE PASSOVER LAMB. 129 

that table, but that thousands do not rush to it ; 
not as if it had any virtue, as if it were a sacrifice, 
God forbid ! but in order there and then to pro- 
claim truly, sincerely, from the depths of their 
heart, that their trust and confidence, and peace, 
all rest upon this fact, that " Christ our Passover is 
sacrificed for us." 



26* 



130 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



vni. 

DAILY BREAD, OR THOUGHTS FOR A COMMUNION 
SABBATH. 

Guide ine, thou great Jehovah, 
Pilgrim through this barren land ; 

I am weak, but thou art mighty, 
Hold me by thy powerful hand : 
Bread of heaven, 

Feed me till I want no more. 

" Give us this day our daily bread." — Matt. vi. 11. 

The Lord's Prayer is divided into two great sec- 
tions : the first section contains the riches of God — 
" thy name,"-" thy kingdom,"— 46 thy will." In 
the second section we have the poverty of man — 
"us forgive," — "us lead not," — "us deliver;" the 
two constituting the great points that, brought 
together, give glory to God in the highest, on earth 
peace, and good-will among mankind. In the 
former of these two divisions we ask, first of all, 
for spiritual blessings. And in so doing we have 
an illustration of the harmony that pervades every 
portion of the word of God. The Lord's Prayer 
is, for instance, the precept, "Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness," i. e. things 
spiritual, " and all these things," i. e. things tempo- 
ral, " shall be added unto j^ou," turned into prayer. 

First, we must ask the spiritual, and next the 



DAILY BREAD. 131 

temporal ; not the exclusion of the one in order 
that there may be the absolute supremacy of the 
other, but the preference and priority of the one, 
and the subordination of the other. The believer 
seeks first the interests of the soul ; secondly, and 
next to these, the well-being of the body. In 
other words, we are taught that God leads and 
teaches us to care, not for the soul only but for the 
body also. Neither can exist alone : he suffers 
neither to be forsaken or forgotten. He cares for 
the mightiest ; he provides for the everlasting safety 
of the soul, and for the temporal well-being of the 
body that perisheth. In this we have a beautiful 
precedent and model for our feelings, our prayers, 
our practice. There is a tendency among men, 
even among good men, to go to extremes. One 
man is absorbed wholly by this question, "What 
shall I eat or what shall I drink, and wherewithal 
shall I be clothed ?" this is the man that prays, if 
he prays at all, only the last half- of the Lord's 
Prayer. Another man is wholly absorbed about 
the salvation of the soul. He thinks, however, 
in grievous ignorance, that in order to achieve 
this it needs the maceration of the body, and the 
exhaustion of its strength, not the crucifixion of 
the lusts of the flesh, but the crucifixion of the 
flesh itself; he retires into a monastery and starves 
and tortures the body in order, as he supposes, to 
save and sanctify the soul. These are extremes. 
This prayer and all God's word, which is a com- 
mentary upon this prayer, teach us to care for the 



132 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

soul first, but not only. That should have the 
supreme regard, but not the exclusive regard. We 
should seek the kingdom of God first, and all 
other things in due subordination to it ; and it will 
appear that this, the way of God, is always the 
best, even for the present prosperity of man ; for 
he whose care has been first about the soul, is he 
who can proceed to provide for the body with 
the greatest energy and the greatest satisfaction to 
himself. 

In looking at this clause, " Give us this day our 
daily bread," I wish the reader especially to notice 
what I am anxious to impress upon him above all, 
and what is the great lesson conveyed in this peti- 
tion, that God is here set before us simply as the 
Giver. This is not a thought that has occurred 
to me for the first time, but a thought that seems 
to me not adequately felt, nor frequently enough 
impressed. We are all prone in our conceptions 
of God to think of him, generally as the exactor, 
and rarely as the giver. Is it not true that our very 
first ideas of God are those of a Being who is con- 
stantly exacting duties, not of a Being who is con- 
stantly giving blessings ? I wish specially to impress 
this : it is a leading thought, and, rightly seen in 
all its breadth and comfort. We are disposed con- 
stantly to think of God as a Being exacting severe 
and incessant duty, and very rarely, or at least very 
inadequately as a beneficent Being, giving inces- 
santly great, precious, and lasting benefits. In 
other words, we hear constantly sounding from the 



DAILY BREAD. 133 

skies demands for duty, obedience, allegiance : we 
rarely see and feel, as we ought to see and feel, the 
descent continually of mercy, benefits and bless- 
ings. Hence we merge God the giver in God the 
exactor. We merge "our Father" in the Great 
Legislator ; we look at him not in the light that 
streams from the countenance of Jesus, but in the 
light of " the consuming fire :" and looking at God 
in this light, and regarding him in this relation- 
ship, we come crowding and shivering like slaves 
around a communion table, deprecating the light- 
ning-that we think ready to consume us, instead 
of coming like sons, joyful sons — in the shelter of 
Calvary, and in the light of Mount Zion, with 
hearts that overflow with responsive love, and 
lives that reflect the fruits of it upon the religion 
we profess. In other words, our idea of God as ex- 
clusively the exactor, makes us feel self-righteous- 
ness, disappointment, terror, despair, alarm. The 
idea of God the giver, even when it is exclusively 
the predominant idea, begets in us gratitude, and 
love, and joy, and thanksgiving. In praying, in 
hearing, in communicating, forget God the exactor, 
and think only of God the giver. Do not hear 
him saying, "Do this," but see him giving grace 
and glory, and witholding no good thing. God's 
way in the law, under which we are not, is, "Do 
this and thou shalt live ;" God's way in the Gospel, 
under which we are, is to give, and to make the 
gifts that he gives like seeds sown in the heart that 
grow up into a harvest of joy, holiness, happiness, 

M 



134 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

and gratitude. Such is the contrast between God 
in the law and God in the Gospel. It is a striking 
truth — a truth we should never forget, that just 
what a man feels his God to be to him, that the 
man is to others. If we look upon God constantly 
as exacting duty but not as giving blessings, we 
become the greatest exactors of duties from others ; 
but if we look at God and rejoice in God, as con- 
stantly giving blessings, we become the most 
bountiful and beneficent donors to others. The 
God with whom man's spirit comes into contact is 
the God whose character is impressed upon that 
spirit, and to whom the life of the individual is 
constantly conformed. Hence the greatest tyrant 
is always the most self-righteous man. The most 
beneficent philanthropist is always the most 
spiritually-minded and Christian man. But some 
one will say, if w r e only think of God giving bless- 
ings and never think of God as demanding duties, 
the consequence will be that we shall not be 
anxious about duty. In the first place, if the 
thought I have presented be true, we have no busi- 
ness with consequences. We are not to look at 
what may be the issue of things; but if the thing 
be right: we are not to care what may be the 
corollary that man's reasoning may draw from a 
truth, if that thing be revealed clearly, plainly, and 
unequivocally in God's word. But it appears that 
the lesson is in the opposite direction. We find in 
a beautiful parable, that the parties who had 
received the greatest blessings, and saw in God the 



DAILY BREAD. 135 

greatest giver, were just those who turned to 
account the gift most richly ; and the party who 
saw in God the niggardly giver, and the stern ex- 
actor, was the very person that brought forth 
nothing at all. Let me turn your attention, in 
proof of this, to Matt. xxv. 14, for it is very illustra- 
tive of this thought. " The kingdom of heaven is 
as a man travelling into a far country, who called 
his own servants, and delivered unto them his 
goods. And unto one he gave five talents/' — here 
is the giver — "to another two, and to another 
one ; to every man according to his several ability. 
Then he that had received the five talents went and 
traded with the same, and made them other five 
talents. And likewise he that had received two, 
he also gained other two. But he that had received 
one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's 
money." Let us proceed to see the principle that 
actuated the man that hid his money in the earth. 
"After a long time the lord of those servants 
cometh, and reckoneth with them." He has been 
acting as the giver throughout this dispensation, 
and presents himself as the exactor only when this 
dispensation closes. "And so he that had received 
five talents came and brought other five talents, 
saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents : 
behold, I have gained beside them five talents 
more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou 
good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful 
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over 
many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 



186 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

He also that had received two talents came and 
said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents : 
behold, I have gained two other talents beside 
them. His lord said unto him, "Well done, good 
and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over 
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord." These 
two received simply gifts ; there was no exaction, 
no condition, no obligation accompanying the gift. 
They were left as seeds deposited in their hearts to 
bring forth their ow r n legitimate and proper fruits. 
Now let us hear the third; what did he say? 
" Then he which had received the one talent came 
and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard 
man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and 
gathering where thou hast not strawed." I looked 
upon thee as an exactor, I never dreamed of thee 
as a giver; and I thought thou hadst put this 
talent into my hands to test me, to try me, demand- 
ing from me more than I ever could, or ever 
dreamed of producing ; and knowing thou wast an 
hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and 
gathering where thou hast not strawed, "I was 
afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth : 
lo, there thou hast that is thine." Do you not see 
that the two men who viewed God in the light of 
a giver were the very men that brought forth all 
the fruit, and that the man who viewed God simply 
as an exactor, and not as a giver, was the very man 
who did nothing at all ? Then we have the argu- 
ment from fact, the strongest of all, that he that 



DAILY BREAD. 187 

receives from God ceaseless benefits and blessings, 
is he that will make spontaneously the noblest and 
the richest practical response; and that he that 
looks up to God and sees him incessantly as the 
hard master, the imperious exactor, yields the least 
return of loyalty, allegiance, and love. Therefore 
let us shut our eyes to God the exactor, and open 
oui hearts to a deeper sense of God the giver of 
all good things. 

Thus, then, we are taught to draw near to him, 
giving trustful utterance to the cry, " Give us this 
day our daily bread.' ' Some persons, however, are 
so charmed with the gift, that it forms a blind to 
their eyes, and prevents them from seeing the giver. 
This is simply idolatry ; for what is idolatry ? The 
worshipping some good thing that God has given 
us, instead of God himself, the giver of it. The 
moment that a gift in God's providence, be it 
money, be it power, be it renown, whatever it be, 
concentrates on itself our sympathy, our trust, or 
our worship, very soon, if we be God's own, he will 
interpose and blast it, or make it bitterly dis- 
appoint us, in order that in the chasm it has left 
we may see him who gave it and who hath taken 
it away. 

But we are taught here in addressing that great 
Giver, to ask first of all " bread." " Give us this 
day our daily bread." This includes all that is 
needful for men to perpetuate their life here ; and 
thus it teaches us that we have to ask from this 
great Giver, not simply spiritual, but also temporal 
27 M 2 



138 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

tilings. But do not many Christians ask of God a 
new heart, faith, joy, holiness, and most properly? 
but do they ask him, in the same way, health and 
strength, and peace, and external, social, domestic 
happiness ? "We have forfeited by sin, just as truly, 
the crumb of bread on which we feed this day, as 
we have forfeited the throne on which God placed 
ns amid the sunshine of Paradise. We need just 
as truly and as really to ask of God food, as we 
need to ask faith. We need to ask of him as truly 
our daily bread, as our supply of daily grace. But 
what is implied in our asking daily bread ? Does 
it mean that God would be pleased to shower 
down bread from the skies, as he showered manna 
on the Israelites in the wilderness ? or to give us 
bread without the toil and anxiety of labouring 
for it? Bread without labour is not necessarily a 
blessing; it is the man who has made his money 
who feels and knows how to spend it. To him to 
whom it came independent of his efforts it is often 
the least of a blessing. We do not here pray that 
God would give us bread to enable us to live 
in indolence. — This would be to contradict his 
own holy word, that, if any man will not work, 
neither should he eat. And we recollect, too, " in 
the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread :" and 
in offering up this petition to God we pray to him 
that he would give us wisdom to direct us in our 
employments: that he would give us strength to 
toil, health to eat that bread, and that he would 
provide for us such measure of it as may be most 



DAILY BREAD. 139 

expedient for us. The word of the devil is, 
" Command that these stones be made bread " — a 
bonus upon indolence — the word of the Lord of 
Glory is, " It is written, Man doth not live b}^ bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God" — an incentive to toil and trust. 
In these words our Lord also teaches, that to have 
bread is not necessarily to have nutriment. Chem- 
ists may speculate as they please, and test as they 
please ; but there is no more reason why flesh 
should nourish us any more than sand, or why 
bread should nourish us and stones should not. 
The simple reason is, that the one is the ordinance 
of God, and that the other is not. And we know 
very well that the bread will not always give nutri- 
ment, — it needs the healthful heart as well as the 
stored basket ; and when w T e pray, therefore, " Give 
us this day our daily bread," we pray to God not 
only that we may have bread to eat, but that w r e 
may have also that healthful appetite which will 
enable us to extract from that bread the nutriment 
that is convenient for us. It is the blessing of God 
that can change the crumb into a glorious banquet. 
It is the absence of that blessing that leaves the 
richest banquet to turn into absolute poison, The 
blessing is the seasoning of the bread, without 
which it will be insipid to the taste and unhealth- 
ful to him that eats it. And thus God has ordained, 
that if the poor man must pray, " Give us daily 
bread," i. e. give me strength to earn it, that I may 
have it, he has also, in that equitable division of 



140 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

substantial, natural happiness, which is far more 
the great characteristic of our world than we think, 
made it as necessary that the rich man should 
pray, " Give us this day our daily bread ;" for 
while the poor man has little bread and a healthy 
appetite, how often is it true that the rich man has 
plenty of bread but an unhealthy appetite to par- 
take of it ! Thus the rich and the poor must meet 
together, whether they will or not, at the common 
throne of the common Father, and must equally 
pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." But the 
petition is limited in another respect. It is not 
said, "Give us bread," but give us bread for this 
day. "We do not ask bread for to-morrow : what 
a reproof is this to many of us ! We do not ask 
bread for next week or next year; at least, we 
ought not. But those anxious thoughts that cark 
and corrode the spirits of us all — those glances that 
we cast into the forbidden ground, the future — 
those anxious thoughts about things that may be, 
or that may never be — are all, translated into in- 
telligible language, " O Lord, the prayer that Jesus 
taught us is not good enough for us, we need to 
amend it; give us this day to-morrow's bread, and 
in this year give us bread for next year." But 
will not such a principle as this do away with 
everything like proper provision for the future, and 
turn man into the fisher by the stream, the hunter 
amid the woods, the savage without foresight, care, 
or prudence of any kind ? I will answer this ques- 
tion by asking another^ Does your anxious care 



DAILY BREAD. 141 

about the future in the least degree alter the future ? 
Does your anxiety about to-morrow make you 
stronger, when to-morrow comes, for to-morrow's 
duty ? Does the anxiety of the husbandman about 
what shall be next autumn, make him plough with 
greater energy, sow with greater speed, and culti- 
vate the soil with greater effect ? Does the mer- 
chant who trembles before his ship sets sail, and is 
afraid that she will founder amid the waves, or be 
dashed to pieces on rocks, make arrangements 
more effectually, or embark on his enterprise with 
greater satisfaction ? You know it is all the 
reverse ; he ploughs and sows with the greatest 
peace whose heart is lifted unto Him that holds 
the winds and the rains in the hollow of his hand ; 
and he that embarks his goods upon the bosom of 
the restless deep, with the recollection that God 
rules the waves, restrains the tempest, and says to 
it, as it sweeps on strongest pinions, " Hitherto, 
but no further," does so with greatest prudence. 
It is this sinful anxiety about the future — it is this 
dissatisfaction with this prayer — it is this desire to 
amend and improve this petition, that leads men 
to embark in wild and extravagant schemes ; the 
tradesman to leave his trade, the farmer his farm, 
the shopman his shop, and rush all to California, 
w T here they may obtain a fortune for to-morrow, 
instead of being content to ask and labour for 
bread for to-day. It is this wild, and extravagant, 
and ungodly feeling, that leads so many to mix the 
days of the next year with those of the present 
27* 



142 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

year ; and when they have done so, to find spring 
from the chaos a viper that fastens not upon the 
hand, from which it may be shaken away, but 
upon the heart, where it feeds upon our life-blood, 
and gnaws our happiness at its core. Strange, 
mysterious, inexplicable phenomenon is man ! he 
puts off the duties of to-day for to-morrow, and 
draws upon to-morrow for fears and anxiety to 
dwell with him to-day. Would that the Spirit of 
God would only teach us more emphatically to 
pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." " Com- 
mit thyself unto him that careth for you." We 
have no lease of life : very many persons think of 
their lives as they look to their houses ; they think 
they have a lease, and that one party cannot break 
the lease without the consent of the other. That 
is perfectly true of houses, but it is not true of 
human life. The great Proprietor has given us life, 
but he has not left it with us to determine when 
the lease shall expire. We may receive as we ask 
for to-day ; we have nothing to do with to-morrow, 
but to face its duties, and triumph in its trials when 
they overtake us, feeling that that God who has 
fed us to-day will feed us to-morrow, when to- 
morrow comes. " Give us this day our daily 
bread." But there is an epithet applied to bread 
here. It is said, " daily bread." The word trans- 
lated " daily" occurs but once in the whole New 
Testament : I have looked into various Lexicons, 
and I cannot find that it is used by any classic 
Greek author. It is the word Itioutw. The deriva- 



DAILY BREAD. 143 

tion of it is from M, preposition, " upon," and outfia, 
substance, or being. Jerome, the Latin Father, 
in translating the Greek New Testament into Latin, 
renders this clause, "Da nobis hodie supersubstan- 
tialem panem," " Give us this day our supersub- 
stantial bread:" and Abelard, of whom you may 
have read, taught those associated with him to 
pray in Jerome's language, and to say, " Give us 
this day our supersubstantial bread." The words 
are extremely emphatic, " Give us this day rov 
aprov rov sVioutfiov," " Give us the bread, that supersub- 
stantial bread." The most correct periphrasis 
would be, " Give us this day that which is bread 
indeed, which is substantially so, really so, worthy of 
the name, and properly called so ; and give us that 
bread which no one but thyself can give this day." 
May there not be here some allusion above the 
bread that perishes ? may it not refer to that 
spiritual and better bread that cometh down from 
heaven ? I believe that temporal bread is the 
main idea, but I do conceive, from this peculiar 
epithet applied to it, that the better bread is also 
referred to. I am led to think so especially, when 
I connect it with such expressions of our Lord as, 
"Man doth not live by bread alone." And again, 
in the Gospel of John, "I will give you that bread 
from heaven." And again, " The Jews murmured 
at him because he said, I am the bread that cometh 
down from heaven." We know he was here evi- 
dently alluding to himself as that bread. Again 
he says, "Your fathers did eat manna in the 



144 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which 
cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat 
thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which 
came down from heaven; if a man eat of this 
bread he shall live for ever, and the bread that I 
w T ill give is my flesh, which I will give for the life 
of the world." May it not be that this clause 
means, " Give us indeed the bread that perishes, 
but give us also that bread, the supersubstantial 
bread that cometh down from heaven — that bread, 
of which if a man eat, he shall live for ever — that 
bread which is the Son of God — that bread which 
is the symbol of his incarnation, his sacrifice, his 
death and suffering for us ?" At all events, if this 
should not be correct, I may mention that one of 
the most eminent German divines, Tholuck, con- 
ceives that it is a spiritual meaning that is to be 
applied to this clause ; and that it denotes, as 
Jerome conceived, spiritual and not temporal 
bread. We cannot here be wrong in taking an 
intermediate interpretation ; that is, in asking 
bread that perishes, in order that we may have this 
better bread that cometh down from heaven. In 
other words, we may understand that we are taught 
to seek temporal blessings in order to obtain 
spiritual and everlasting blessings. You remember 
Rachel asked for a son, to gratify her pride; that 
son was given, and she perished at his birth, calling 
him with her expiring accents, Benoni, the son of 
my sorrow. But we read that Hannah made the 
same request; she too asked for a son, and God 



DAILY BREAD. 145 

granted her petition, because that son was to be 
devoted to the service of the Lord. "When we ask, 
therefore, temporal blessings in order that spiritual 
ones may be attained through or by them, we may 
expect that God will bestow them ; but when we 
ask temporal blessings for display, for vanity, for 
self-glory, for gratifying the lust of the eye, and 
the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, then 
it is mercy in God to withhold them, or so to give 
them that they are not adequately enjoyed. 

We not only ask God as the giver for bread, 
daily bread, but we also say, " Give us this day our 
daily bread." How beautiful is this ! A Christian 
cannot ask a blessing for himself without asking it 
for all mankind. The prodigal's petition — the 
petition of a selfish heart was, " Give me the por- 
tion of goods that falleth to me." The petition of 
the child of God is, " Give us this day our daily 
bread." I have always thought that a very beauti- 
ful clause in the English Litany in which we pray, 
after asking many blessings for many classes, " that 
it may please thee to have mercy upon all men." 
Large-hearted and comprehensive sympathy with 
the necessities and wants and sorrows of all man- 
kind is a right Christian spirit. God, how T ever, in 
teaching us this petition, has taught us that we 
cannot petition for ourselves without petitioning 
for others. In short, liberality and sympathy and 
unselfishness are impressed, bj^ the very constitu- 
tion of the universe, more or less upon us. The 
farmer cannot go forth in the spring to sow his 

N 



146 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

seed without feeding all the worms in the earth 
and all the fowls in the air. It is matter of fact, 
that three-fifths of the seed sown are consumed by 
the birds and worms. And if in order to prevent 
this he should sow less, he would have no crop ; or 
if he should have recourse to a recent chemical 
contrivance, by dipping the seed in arsenic in order 
that the worms may not feed on it, the very birds 
that he shoots for his sport and sells for his profit 
eat the tainted corn, and disease, like a retribution 
from the skies, has been spread among thousands 
unexpectedly in consequence. Let man try to be 
the monopolist in the earth, and he will soon be 
swept from its surface. Let man try to feed all 
and to provide for all to the utmost of his power, 
and he will find that God will take care of him and 
provide for him. " Give us this day our daily 
bread." "What intensity of meaning must this 
prayer have had in the infant Church at Jerusalem! 
where we read they that had goods " sold them, 
and brought 'the prices of the things that were 
sold, and laid them at the Apostles' feet, and dis- 
tribution was made to every man according as he 
had need," neither said any man that aught he had 
was his own. I do not say that community of 
goods is now a duty ; I believe it would be ruin ; 
but I believe that the great law that was illustrated 
in the Church at Jerusalem is a law applicable for 
all times, and circumstances, and countries, and 
seasons. Communism is an abomination ; but pro- 
perty has its duties, and its responsibilities: in 



DAILY BREAD. 147 

short, devolving upon it large-hearted ness, liberal- 
ity, benevolence, sympathy ; and the moment that 
it neglects these duties the possessor will find it is 
no blessing. One cannot but feel that when we 
have been praying in the sanctuary, " Give us this 
day our daily bread" — praying that all mankind 
may share it, and when one passes by the numer- 
ous wretched objects in the street, one is perplexed 
whether to give, and thus possibly contribute to 
the perpetuation of deception, imposture, and 
trading in sin, or whether in every case to with- 
hold, and leave many a meritorious one to pine, 
and hungry ones and cold ones to go home and 
weep, and suffer and die in secret. Perhaps the 
great want is that as a nation we should say, 
"Give us this day our daily bread;" and as a 
nation make yet richer and larger provision for the 
poor. I believe it is God's ordinance that the 
poor should be taken care of, and no nation will be 
ever blest that enriches itself at the expense of 
neglecting and starving its dependent poor. May 
this prayer that rises in our churches and in our 
homes, rise in the mighty masses of this mighty 
nation, " Lord, give us this day our daily 
bread ! " 

I would ask the reader, in drawing one or two 
practical remarks from the whole, to recollect now 
the beautiful and sanctified light in which I have 
asked him to regard our God, not as the exactor 
of sacrifices and of duties, however true that may 
be in its place and degree, but to think of him on 



148 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

a Communion Sabbath as the giver of our daily 
bread, and of the bread of life ; as the giver of 
grace and the giver of glory. Think of God only 
as enriching you with his blessings, and loving you 
without one word to limit those blessings in the 
shape of condition, and then turn the thought to 
benevolent and practical and blessed account. 
The law is a continual voice, " Thou shalt do this, 
and thou shalt not do that;" the Gospel is the 
silent hand coming forth from the cloud and pour- 
ing into your cup the blessings that you receive, 
and suggesting, "Lovest thou me?" and leaving 
the response of gratitude to go forth and exhibit 
the holy, the consistent, the obedient life. Obedi- 
ence to God is less an exaction made by God, and 
more a spontaneous offering that is given in return 
by man. 

In the second place, be sure when you ask for 
bread and blessings from him who is the Giver, to 
ask not for yourself only, but for all : and as you 
ask for all, and receive for yourself, remember, 
that what God gives you, a blessing, he gives to 
you as a steward. In this is a great truth ; let us 
not forget it. Whatever God gives us he gives us 
as stewards. If a man receive 20,000?. he has it 
merely for his lifetime, he cannot take it to the 
grave with him ; and if he could, it would be worth 
nothing to him ; or if he receives so much per 
annum he receives it only for life, and no more. 
God gives us these things in order that we may 
give to others. Why does he make one soil more 



DAILY BREAD. 149 

fertile than another ? That it may bear richer 
fruit, and thus compensate for the deficiency of the 
the barren. Why does he make one richer than 
another ? That he may be more liberal, till at last 
it is seen that he that is lord of all is the steward 
of all, and he that receives most is bound by the 
most solemn obligations to give most to those that 
are around him. I believe that the Christian 
Church has never yet risen to the dignity and duty 
of beneficence for Christ's sake. We have always 
given superfluities. I believe that the old law of 
tithe which was given to the Jews, that every one 
ought to give a tenth of what he had to God's 
cause, is not, in the letter, obligatory upon us, 
but in the spirit of it it is substantially so. 

Let us not fail, above all, to ask for spiritual 
bread, the better bread that cometh down from 
heaven. The bread on the communion table is 
but the commemoration of that sacrifice made, the 
oblation completed; and when we meet at the 
communion table, we take into our hands this 
element of bread to be our silent prayer that God 
would feed us with living bread — to be our solemn 
declaration of our belief that God has provided 
for us that bread, and as soon, and sooner far may 
a father refuse bread to his offspring round him, 
than the Great Father of us all refuse living bread 
to those souls that ask it in sincerity and truth. 
And with reference to temporal things, let our 
desires be moderate, and our enjoyment will only 
be the greater. Learn, communicant, to pray with 
28 n2 



150 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

Agar, " Eemove far from me vanity and lies : give 
me neither poverty nor riches." Can you at the 
communion table, in your own home, in the depth 
and secrecy of your heart, utter this prayer, " Give 
me neither poverty" — that I know most can pray, 
but can you add, "nor riches;" "feed me with 
food convenient forme?" "Give me not riches, 
lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the 
Lord? Give me not poverty, lest I be poor, and 
steal, and take the name of my God in vain." In 
other words, the Old Testament and the New 
Testament, like the twin lips of an ancient oracle, 
utter but one exhortation, and teach but one peti- 
tion, " Give us this day our daily bread." When 
you have obtained the bread that perisheth and 
the bread of life, what next comes ? We must not 
be always praying and never praising. They that 
eat their bread in humility are they that will praise 
with gratitude and joy. And hence God warned 
his people of old, "When thou hast eaten," L e. 
after I have given daily bread, " and art full, then 
thou shalt bless the Lord thy God;" and if I 
address any who in their retrospect of past years 
feel that God has given them, by ways they least 
expected, and to an amount they least deserved, 
their daily bread, — any who believe that God has 
given them during last year the better bread that 
cometh down from heaven, and enabled them to 
taste that he is gracious, — any who have mercies 
to commemorate, — who have blessings, bright and 
open like the morning dew, in their retrospect, — 



DAILY BREAD. 151 

who have been taught to cherish hopes no less 
brilliant in perspective, — any who believe that to 
God they are indebted for all, and that on him 
they are determined still to hang for all, — then you 
are the parties who should approach the table of 
the Lord, there to praise and thank the giver. 
For you a new song is ready ; for your new heart 
is prepared what is emphatically a eucharistic 
hymn : " Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and all that 
is within me, bless his holy name; for he hath 
pardoned my sins, he hath- healed my disease, he 
hath renewed my youth, he hath satisfied my' 
mouth with good things, he hath crowned me with 
loving-kindness and tender mercies. Bless the 
Lord, my soul." 



152 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 



IX. 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR ; OR AFTER-COMMUNION 
VOWS. 

" Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after 
thee : for whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou 
lodgest, I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and 
thy God my God." — Ruth i. 16. 

People of the living God, 

I have sought the world around ; 
Paths of sin and sorrow trod, 

Peace and comfort nowhere found. 
Now to you my spirit turns — 

Turns a fugitive unbless'd; 
Brethren, where your altar burns, 

receive me unto rest ; 
Lonely I no longer roam, 

Like the cloud, the wind, the wave ; 
Where you dwell shall be my home — 

Where you die shall be my grave, 
Mine the God whom you adore, 

Your Redeemer shall be mine ; 
Earth can fill my heart no more, 

Every idol I resign. 

It appears from the book from which I have 
selected these words, that Naomi was a Christian, 
that the two sons were married to two Gentile 
wives, who were not Christians, namely Orpha 
and Ruth ; that the husbands of both died, and 
Naomi was about to return to the land of her 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 153 

fathers, where she could enjoy the worship of her 
own and her father's God — the living and the true 
God. The two daughters-in-law were distressed at 
the prospect of separation. One of them, and in 
the first instance, both, proposed following her. 
She stated, however, reasons and facts, that pre- 
vented one of them at least from persevering in 
her determination, for it is stated " Orpah kissed 
her mother-in-law, but," it is added in emphatic 
contrast to this, that Ruth not only "kissed her," 
but "clave unto her." When Naomi saw that 
Ruth clave unto her, she said to her, " Behold, thy 
sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and 
unto her gods : return thou after thy sister-in-law." 
"Let not affection bias you ; the change you will 
make must be a change from the worship of the 
gods of the Gentiles to the worship of the living 
and true God who made heaven and earth. Let 
not your affection to a mother lead you to change 
without conviction the creed that you deliberately 
adopt; do not therefore persist in following me 
against the suggestions of conscience, and in com- 
pliance only with the prescriptions of ardent affec- 
tion, but rather follow what your conscience 
applauds as true, than let your affections to me 
determine the religion you will embrace." She 
also showed her that she could have no prospect 
of earthly aggrandisement in following her. She 
tells her in the first instance that she was poor, 
saying in verse 21, " I went out full, and the Lord 
hath brought me home again empty;" and she 



154 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

states in verse 13, " The hand of the Lord is gone 
out against me ;" I am therefore poor and friend- 
less ; I cannot enrich you ; if you should follow 
me you will neither be made great nor wealthy, 
and therefore if any human motives or the pros- 
pect of earthly aggrandisement actuate you, you 
w r ill be bitterly disappointed. For "I went out 
full, and the Lord hath brought me home again 
empty;" I went out Naomi, "the beautiful," pro- 
nounced to be so in the estimate of all, I return 
Mara, "bitter," in affliction and sorrow, and a 
spectacle to all, so that " the city was moved when 
they saw me, and said, Is this Naomi ?" She thus 
puts before her daughter-in-law religion in rags, 
and says, Can you thus follow me ? A very im- 
portant question : religion is not always clothed in 
purple and in fine linen ; it is not always found in 
palaces and noble halls; nor basking in the sun- 
shine, and followed by the smiles, and surrounded 
by the splendour of this world ; it sometimes pre- 
cedes to the prison and leads to the stake, demands 
sacrifice, suffering, surrender; and then a man's 
religion is tested, when he that followed Chris- 
tianity in the sunshine is called upon to follow her 
in the cloud, in pain and in suffering. But though 
she gave evidence enough of her poverty, the very 
remarks that she made while conveying a state- 
ment of her poverty indicated also her piety. She 
did not even in that remote and patriarchal age 
when life and immorality were not so vividly 
brought to light, say, "Circumstances have made 
me poor, misfortunes have reduced me.' 



C*T 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 155 

looked above secondary causes. She saw God 
behind the cloud ; in every stroke she heard 
his voice ; she says, " The hand of the Lord 
is gone out against me, and the Almighty hath 
dealt very bitterly with me;" as Job said, "The 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed 
be the name of the Lord." And here it is import- 
ant to notice her object in stating this. She says 
to Ruth, "You are about to follow me, to leave 
the gods of your country, and to worship the true 
God : recollect that this God whom you purpose to 
come with me and worship is a God that afflicts 
his people when it is good for them : for this same 
Lord whom you desire to follow has made me 
poor: he has shattered all my prospects, he has 
taken away what is nearest and dearest to me, and 
yet I cleave to him : though he slay me, yet will I 
trust in him ; it was not the penal infliction of a 
judge, but the paternal chastisement of the 
Father." Having thus stated her poverty, and 
that the God she trusted in was the God that had 
afflicted her, she says to Ruth, "Now look at these 
things ; count the cost ; do not begin to build with- 
out counting what you will have to pay, and if you 
are dissatisfied, return. If you can make the 
sacrifice, then follow me and come." The beauti- 
ful reply of Ruth is a reply full of decision : "In- 
treat me not to leave thee" — that would, break my 
heart; my mind is made up, for "whither thou go- 
est, I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge : 
thy people shall be my people," though they should 



156 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

be poor, " and thy God my God," though he should 
afflict me as he has afflicted thee, he shall still be 
my God. It is thus that Naomi may here be 
regarded as the representative of true religion, and 
Ruth a follower of that religion ; and surely it is 
not doing violence to the text, but rather following 
out its spirit, if I take her not as the representative 
of religion in the abstract, but of him who is the 
Alpha and Omega of all real and living religion — 
the Lord Jesus Christ : and if after the reader has 
enjoyed a communion Sabbath, I presume that 
some such resolution as that which glowed in her 
heart glows in the hearts of those who have felt 
the love and tasted the excellence of the " chief 
among ten thousand," " altogether lovely." 

Then looking at this as the believer's address to 
his blessed Lord, let us examine the language of it. 
" Intreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from 
following after thee." 

The first feature in a believer's life, as indicated 
here> is that he follows Christ. We find in the 
Apocalypse the beautiful statement, "These are 
they that follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." 
The believer is not to follow the minister, however 
excellent his character or eloquent his words ; nor 
the church, however beautiful its forms or particu- 
larly useful it has been during the history of its 
existence; nor is he to follow any creature upon 
earth, or any angel in the sky, as the model of 
excellence, or as the object of his love ; — he is to 
follow none implicitly but him in whom he can 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 157 

trust exclusively — the Lord Jesus Christ. And 
when he follows him, he is not to follow him with 
faltering or wavering footsteps, but in the language 
of Ruth he is to follow him " whithersoever he go- 
eth ;" he is to follow him fully ; he is to follow his 
precepts, bow to his will, cleave to his service, 
derive nutriment from him as the parasite derives 
its nutriment from the tree round which it climbs; 
ever to turn to him as the heliotrope turns to the 
sun in his meridian from the east onward to the 
west ; and to follow him steadfast and immovable 
as the needle that points perpetually to the pole ; 
Christ the Alpha, Christ the Omega, of our life ; 
Christ the rock on which we lean ; Christ the 
model we implicitly and ceaselessly follow. 

But not only does the believer follow Christ, but 
he follows him wherever he goes ; " Where thou 
goest, I will go;" i. e. where Christ in his provi- 
dence precedes, there the believer will follow : we 
must try not to go before Christ, but to go after 
him. " Where thou goest, I will go ;" the place of 
which you are satisfied from the best and first im- 
pression, that Christ is not there, however profit- 
able it may be, his people have no business in. 
The language of the Christian is, "Where thou 
goest, I will go." This denotes agreement. 
" How," it is said, " can two walk together except 
they be agreed ?" it implies, therefore, that we are 
first at one with Christ, and then prepared to walk 
with him. The storm may be heavy, the way may 
belong, but if Christ precede you, the rough places 

o 



158 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

of the desert will be soft and beautiful as the paths 
of Eden, and the darkest night will have a thou- 
sand suns, instead of the day that has only one, if 
Christ precede us, and we follow. 

After the example of Abraham, we shall go out 
not knowing whither we go, except that Abraham's 
Lord precedes us. After the example of Moses, we 
shall choose rather to suffer affliction with the people 
of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, 
and esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches 
than all the the treasures of Egypt. "We shall go 
with Christ, if needs be, to judgment, but not, 
like Peter, to deny that we know the man. We 
shall go with him like John, to the solitary isle of 
Patmos, and we shall see visions of apocalyptic 
glory ; or like Bunyan, to the lonely prison, there 
to trace out the Pilgrim's Progress from a world 
of suffering and sin to a realm of felicity and joy. 
When the body cannot follow Christ, because of 
its feebleness, the heart within it will, as the cap- 
tive bird in its cage strikes against the wires that 
enclose it, in order to reassert its freedom, — pant 
after him, whom to know and whom to follow is 
to know the truth, and to follow upward and on- 
ward to the rest that remaineth to the people of 
God. 

" Where thou goest, I will go." What a solemn 
assertion is that ! wherever Christ goes, I will go : 
I must go — not, I shall be under the necessity of 
going — but, I will go. We should think nothing 
of suffering, we should regard little the peril, if we 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 159 

are sure that we are in the path of duty. In read- 
ing of the exploits of our armies in India, we see 
that the soldier follows his leader to the cannon's 
mouth : he does not think of life or death, or of 
wounds or of peril ; he has one idea in his mind, 
obedience to his commander. We, too, are 
soldiers, and soldiers under the great Captain of 
the faith, and we must be prepared, wherever 
his banner floats, there to be, and wherever he 
precedes, there, not reluctantly, but rejoicingly, to 
follow. 

The believer also adds, " Where thou lodgest, I 
will lodge." Where has Christ lodged before? He 
himself has told us, " The foxes have holes, and 
the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man 
hath not where to lay his head." He might now 
say, " I lodge rather in the garrets of the poor than 
in the palaces of the noble ; you will find my foot- 
prints oftener in the lowly cottage than in the 
royal or imperial palace ; oftener in the upper 
room, or in the lowly chapel, or in the humble 
meeting of the saints of God, than beneath the 
fretted roofs of magnificent cathedrals, or amid the 
pomp and splendour of a gorgeous ceremonial. 
Wherever two or three are met together in my 
name, there am I," i. e. "I lodge in the midst of 
them ;" and if you ask me what spot in the uni- 
verse is the favourite lodging of the Lord of glory, 
my answer will be, An humble, lowly, trusting 
heart, for with such he himself says, " I delight to 
dwell." In speaking of churches, it is said, the 



160 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

chancel is holier than the rest of the church ; but 
there is a chancel that is holier still, and that is the 
chancel of a holy heart : there is the true light, the 
fire that is never quenched, the glory that is never 
shaded, and there the Lord of glory tells you that 
he delights to dwell. And when his lodging will 
be no more below, but in the new Jerusalem, and 
amid the glory of that city that has no need of the 
sun nor of the moon, but which is illumined with 
the glory of God, then we, too, may lodge with 
him ; having followed him below, having gone 
where he went, and lodged where he lodged, even 
there may we lodge also. Now joy lodges in us, 
then we shall lodge in joy. Now we have a 
stream from the ocean that enters into us, as an 
earnest and foretaste of what is to be ; then we 
shall enter into that sea, unsounded and un- 
fathomed, without shore and without limit and 
without bound — a sea of joy, the chimes of which 
man's ear hath not heard, and the avapi^ov ysXa^a, 
the countless smiles of which his eye hath not seen, 
and the intense joy of which man's heart hath not 
conceived. 

But it is added, as if to denote the complete 
surrender and sacrifice of the believer to his Lord, 
" Thy people shall be my people." There is a test 

— thy people — whatever be their name, whatever 
be their circumstances, these are immaterial things, 

— " thy people shall be my people." They may 
be a poor people. Christianity has been covered 
more frequently with rags than with royal robes. 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 161 

It is not rags that make men to be ashamed, but 
sin, and sin alone, that is truly shameful ; and we 
read in the word of God itself, that not many 
might} 7 , not many noble are called. It is said, too, 
that "the common people heard Christ gladly," 
when the proud Pharisee and the aristocratic 
Sadducee would not listen to him, except with 
contemptuous scorn. And if this is your resolu- 
tion, you will prefer the company of a poor Chris- 
tian to the company of a noble, but profane and 
ungodly man. Is it not too true, that place rags 
upon a Christian, and a coronet upon a wicked 
man's brow, half the world will run after the pomp, 
splendour, and glory, and turn with contempt from 
him who has God's grace within, but the emblems 
and symbols of poverty and destitution without ? 
It implies, too, that God's people may be illiterate 
men. Many are masters of the learning of Caesar, 
who are but babes indeed in the knowledge of 
Christ. It is possible to speak as many languages 
as Mithridates of old, to be skilled in all the 
branches of science, to know all that is in the 
largest Encyclopaedia of this world, and yet not to 
know him, whom to know is eternal life. " The 
knowledge of this world is power," said a philoso- 
pher ; we may add, " The knowledge of the world 
to come is life and peace;" the Spirit of God has 
pronounced it to be so. God's people, too, may 
not exactly agree with us in every jot and tittle of 
our ceremonial ; they may not be able to- pro- 
nounce our Shibboleth ; they may not wear our 
29 o2 



162 THE COMMUNION tABLE. 

dress, or use precisely our prayers or our forms, 
and yet may be God's people. We need not only 
to feel this, but to act upon it.' I believe that God 
has his people in all sects and parties of the Chris- 
tian Church : most of them where bigotry thinks 
fewest of them are ; even in the Church of Rome, 
as I have often told you, there are many of God's 
people, in spite of the system, not in consequence 
of it, and now listening to the cry that is lifted up 
from sea to sea, and from continent to continent, 
" Come out of her, my people, that ye be not par- 
takers of her plagues/' 

Thus God's people may be poor, they may be 
illiterate, they may be members of a Church differ- 
ing from ours. Other things may have their influ- 
ence, in fact they may very properly determine 
much of our course ; but when we are looking for 
Christians, we must penetrate the outward cover- 
ing, whether it be lawn sleeves or common rags, 
and see and recognise the seal and impress of the 
Lord on whomsoever it appears. 

These people then, in the first place, are those 
who have felt this mighty truth in all its force, 
" What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul ?" No man can be a 
Christian, who has not felt, in some degree, the 
force of this question. This people have also felt 
the practical, personal conviction that by nature 
they are fallen, ruined, lost, cast out from God, 
without merit, without title, without righteousness, 
and that whatever may be the little distinctions, 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 163 

moral, political, social, circumstantial, by which 
men are separated upon earth, yet in the sight of 
God, and with reference to our right to heaven, we 
are all upon one dead level, without God, without 
Christ, and without any well-grounded hope in the 
world. Have you felt this, my reader ? have you 
felt that your desert is by nature punishment from 
God ; that if you have advanced one step towards 
glory, it has been entirely by the grace of God ? 

This people see in the Son of God all they need ; 
in his blood, that which alone can cleanse them — 
in his righteousness, that which alone can cover 
them — in his intercession, that which alone can 
keep them from falling — in his promises, that 
which alone can encourage them. And they are 
the people who see in the Spirit of God that which 
alone can renew, regenerate, and sanctify them. 
They are satisfied that baptism cannot do it ; they 
are perfectly convinced that no living man, by any 
power or process or incantation whatsoever can do 
it, and they feel that a new heart comes not by 
might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord 
of Hosts. They are a people who are in the 
world, but not of the world ; they are here to dis- 
charge its duties, meet its responsibilities, and in 
their place enjoy the blessings that God affords 
them, but who feel at the same time, that they are 
here not to get ready to remain here, but to get 
ready to go hence ; who feel that they are here to 
make preparation for a world beyond this, and in 



164 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

whose mind this conviction is a power of plastic 
impresssion. 

Such, then, are the people of God, of whom you 
say, in addressing the Saviour, " Thy people shall 
be my people.' ' They may be few. Christ does 
not count how many are present in a congregation, 
but he ascertains who are present. They may not 
be wealthy, they may be in the depths of poverty ; 
they may have no rank, they may be all plebeians; 
they may have no learning, they may just 

" Know — and know no more — the Bible true; 
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew," 

but yet they may be the people of God. 

The last resolution is, "Thy God shall be my 
God." It seems as if this were the original voice, 
and that Christ's w T ords were the echo of it when 
he says, "I ascend unto my Father and your 
Father, and to my God and your God." What 
God then is this whom we thus resolve shall be 
our God ? He whom we petition as " our Father." 
He whom I have endeavoured to describe to you 
as the giver of all good things — He who is defined 
by the Evangelist in one of his Epistles to be all 
"love" — He who is thus described by the prophet 
Micah: "Who is a God like unto thee, that 
pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgres- 
sion of the remnant of his heritage ? he retaineth 
not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in 
mercy. He will turn again, he will have compas- 
sion upon us ; he will subdue our iniquities ; and 



CLEAVING TO THE SAVIOUR. 165 

thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the 
sea." This God will be our God ; he will give us 
his love to embrace us, his power to guide us, his 
fulness to enrich us, his glory to receive and 
welcome us. Then this God who is our God shall 
be so really. We rarely think of this fact, that 
nothing in this world is ours really ? Money is not 
ours ; it may be here to-day, it is gone to-morrow. 
Renown is not ours ; it is like a snow-flake, perish- 
able and short-lived. Health is not ours, "the 
wind passes over it, and it is gone." Talent is not 
ours ; God's finger has but to touch the brain, and 
the greatest intellect is turned into idiotcy. Life 
is not ours ; for " we know not what a day may 
bring forth." Our souls are not our own ; for God 
says, "All souls are mine." But there is one that 
is really ours, if we are really Christians, and He 
can never be taken away from us ; " This God is 
our God, my Father and your Father, my God and 
your God." It is, therefore, with great emphasis 
and absolute truth, that we can say, as the Psalm- 
ist says in Psalm xviii., " The Lord is my rock, and 
my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my 
strength, my buckler, my salvation, my high 
tower." Monopoly here is duty; selfishness, if I 
may use such a word, here is not sin. To make 
sure of God as our God, each for himself, is not 
to deny God to others; for he that feels most 
truly, "this God to be his God," is just the person 
that will rejoice most heartily on hearing a thou- 
sand others round him say, " This God shall be our 
29* 



166 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

God also." This God, then, shall be ours, and 
having him, we shall have all things. To have 
riches is but to have the seeds of sorrow ; to have 
talent is to have a spark of momentary brilliancy; 
but to have God is to have all — to have him who 
is a substitute for all when all is gone, and to have 
what sanctifies and sweetens all when all continues. 
It is then, and then only, that we can sing what 
the prophet records : "Although the fig-tree shall 
not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the 
labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall 
yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the 
fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I 
will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my 
salvation." 

Let all such as intend to come to the communion 
table, and no less so all who have drawn near to it, 
thus address the Lord : " Intreat me not to leave 
thee, or to return from following after thee : 
whither thou goest, I will go ; where thou lodgest, 
I will lodge : thy people shall be my people, and 
thy God my God." 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 167 



COMMUNICANTS THE LIGHTS OF THE WORLD; OR 
AFTER-COMMUNION DUTIES. 

" Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." — 
Matt. v. 16. 

It is assumed that the light of the Gospel has 
penetrated the Christian's mind, and therefore, he 
is desired to let it so shine before men that others 
may see his good works and glorify his Father 
which is in heaven. If the verse stopped at the 
middle clause, it would bid us be Pharisees ; but 
as it stops where the Spirit of God has fixed the 
stop, it bids us be Christians. It is not, " let your 
light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works' ' only — a Pharisee did that before and 
a Pharisee will do it still ; but it is " let your light 
so shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." 
This text inculcates the lesson, that what light we 
receive we ought to reflect in all its beauty, its 
glory, and its purity. It tells us we are not to be 
absorbents of the light only, but reflectors of it ; 
that we are not to be merely receivers, but like 
God, givers. We are, in other words, to pray 
Psalm ixvih, but to take care not to end with the 
words, " God be merciful unto ue and bless us/' — 



168 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

there a selfish man might stop, but a Christian 
man cannot; he proceeds, "that thy way may be 
known upon the earth, thy saving health among 
all nations. ,, A Christian prays that he may be 
blessed in order that he may be a blessing ; that 
he may receive the greatest light in order that he 
may thereby communicate the greatest light. Mono- 
poly, absorption, selfishness, are words not found 
in the Christian's language, and the exponents of 
feelings that must be strangers, more or less, to a 
Christian's heart. In order now to let your light 
thus shine in order to distribute what you thus 
receive, it is implied that you are to step forth from 
the solitary to the social life ; that your sphere of 
duty is not to be a corner, but that it is to be the 
world. It implies that you are to be in the world, 
in its duties, in its responsibilities, in order to en- 
lighten the world, and thus to glorify your Father 
which is in heaven. Light, the figure here used, 
is truly expressive : light has a soft, sweet, and 
continuous influence ; it comes with a speed that 
arithmetic cannot calculate, yet it touches a sleep- 
ing infant's eye with a gentleness that makes no 
sensible impression. It is not said, " let your 
lightning so shine before men ;" the course of many 
is like the lightning's flash, that illuminates for a 
moment, and then leaves a more terrible darkness 
behind: a Christian's career is like the light of the 
sun, that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day. It implies that you are not to try to shine 
before you have light, but that you are first to see 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 169 

that you are lights, and then, and then only, you 
will be luminous. All the epithets applied in the 
New Testament show us that a Christian's light is 
aggressive, or missionary, that is, it goes forth to 
do good to others. In this very chapter it is said, 
"ye are the lights of the world," "ye are the salt 
of the earth:" both beautiful characteristics of 
Christians. There are even among Christians, 
distinctions of progress in grace. Some have 
more pride, others more humility : the prouder or 
less subdued Christian, if such there be, would 
desire to be one of the lights of the world, some- 
thing that will dazzle spectators by its splendour ; 
but the humble Christian will be satisfied to be the 
salt of the earth which acts silently, but intensely, 
and penetrates unseen the surrounding mass, until 
the whole is drawn under its preserving influence. 
It is not here stated that you ought to be the lights 
of the world, as if it were your duty, but that you 
are so as an indispensable Christian characteristic. 
In other words, if you are not the light of the 
world, nor the salt of the earth, the only just con- 
clusion is, that you are not Christians. A Chris- 
tian shines not because he will, but because he is 
luminous — -just because he is light; he does good, 
not because it is the best policy, or because he will 
get the greatest credit, or even because he desires 
to please God or to benefit mankind, but he does 
good because he cannot help it; it is incident to 
his renovated nature, it is the response of gratitude 
to him who is the Lord the Giver. 

p 



170 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

"When a man tries to do good by scheming, or 
for side ends, or to obtain popularity, or from any 
perishable motive whatsoever, so far he is not a 
Christian ; but when he does good because he sees 
and feels that it is a brother that needs it, a fellow- 
creature that demands it, that it is his Lord and 
Master who receives the expression of gratitude 
when one of his own receives a cup of cold water, 
then he acts like a priest, and he gives because 
God has given to him. If then we are the lights 
of the world, we cannot easily be hid, and we need 
not therefore plan how to make ourselves seen : we 
have only to remove obstructions and we must be 
seen. In fact, the transformation which is made 
in a Christian's heart by grace is so complete a 
revolution, that it is utterly impossible it can be 
hid. Let the lightning strike the lofty spire and 
level it with the dust, and no trace be left — let it 
rend the gnarled oak into splinters and yet not a 
fragment be visible — let health be in the heart and 
yet create no traces in the countenance — let life be 
within and yet be no efflux or circulation of life- 
blood through the system — and then there can be 
light in the mind, and love in the heart, and peace 
in the conscience, and no outward manifestation 
of it visible in the life. When the Gospel un- 
clenches the hand of avarice, levels with the dust 
the towers of pride, penetrates all places, abashed 
at no greatness, surprised at no sin, and makes the 
weakest things monuments of its power, and the 
most defective things trophies of its grace — it Lb 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 171 

impossible, where such a change has taken place, 
that there should be neither trace, nor sign, nor 
effect of it visible upon the outward life. What 
instances have w T e of this in the word of God? 
Abraham left Uz of the Chaldees, and w r ent forth 
not knowing w^hither he went, and every footprint 
he has left upon the sands of time is luminous 
still. Moses "counted the reproach of Christ 
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, and for- 
sook all, not fearing the wrath of the king;" he 
passed through the world one of its most splendid 
luminaries, and left a trail of light behind him that 
shines and illuminates many a pilgrim's journey 
still. "The noble army of martyrs," "the goodly 
fellowship of the prophets," " the glorious company 
of the Apostles" have left similar evidences of 
their transit through a world of darkness and sin; 
all reminding us of what the poet has so beauti- 
fully said : — 

" Lives of good men all remind us 

We can make our lives sublime, 
And departing, leave behind us, 

Footprints on the sand of time- 
Footprints that perhaps another 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, may take heart again." 

They have left us an example that w r e should 
follow them as they followed Christ. 

In the next place, the nature of this world 
renders it impossible that Christian light can be 
hid. We are placed in a world where character 



172 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

will come out ; where it will be seen and felt what 
a man is, and whether he has been changed or not. 
The instant that sin, like the fabled Siren, sl^all 
spread her pleasures, her prospects, her allurements, 
before you, you will throw up this feature, " lover 
of God rather than lover of pleasure," and so your 
light will shine forth before men. When ambition 
arrays before you its powerful patrons, and makes 
you promises of its rewards if you will fall down 
and worship, your light will show itself, and " God 
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of 
Christ, by which the world is crucified unto me 
and I unto the world," will become luminous in 
your life, so that you shall present to the world the 
manifestation, the apocalypse of one " who counts 
the reproach of Christ greater honour than all the 
treasures of Egypt." Do you refuse to merge the 
Christian in the worldling, your conscience, with 
its solemn obligations, in your convenience with 
its pretended demands ? Do you refuse to sacrifice 
your principles to prejudice, passion, profit, or 
pleasure ? Would you rather part with your great- 
est right on earth than let go your least hope in 
heaven ? Would you rather surrender the greatest 
honour that Caesar can bestow, than let go the 
noble dignity of being "the sons of God?" It is 
only when we show principle triumphing over pro- 
fit — when we show the majesty of conscience, like 
a great monarch swaying all that is within us — 
and giving tone to all that is around us — when we 
present ourselves as men who are governed by 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 178 

principles which the world cannot understand, 
influenced by a light that the world must see — 
though it do not approve — it is only then that the 
world feels that our religion is something more 
than a Sunday dress, or a holiday amusement — 
that it is w T hat we know it to be, a regenerating 
element — the will of God not in w r ords only, but 
in demonstration of the Spirit and in power. 

Not only will the ivorld thus bring out a Chris- 
tian character, but the trials and afflictions in which 
we are all placed, will also do the same. The 
natural man is in the w-orld, and so is the Chris- 
tian, the one will buy and sell just as the other, 
and the one will laugh and weep just as the other 
does. It is not making a face or putting on a dress, 
or repeating certain pious expressions, as some men 
repeat oaths and profane swearing, without attach- 
ing any meaning to them, that make a man a 
Christian or that constitute light : the difference is 
seen when trials come. The worldling and the 
Christian walk in the same broad high road for so 
many miles, but the road at length diverges; 
principle points one way, profit points another. 
Here is the place at w T hich it will be seen who is 
for Christ and who is not. The Christian follows 
Christ, counting all but loss for him ; the worldling 
follows what he thinks profit, sacrificing all for it. 
Each trial is a furnace, in which the Christian is 
placed ; the dross only will be consumed, the gold 
will come out more beautiful than before. It is 
in trial, affliction, losses, that you will see — and 
80 p 2 



174 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

they are sent of God that you may see — what your 
Christianity is, Can you say, when all you have 
gathered is swept away by the hurricane, or has 
taken wings and fled away, in the terrible chasm 
there is left behind, " I have still the unsearchable 
riches of Christ ?" When God is pleased to take 
away the babes he has given you, and to leave you 
childless, — can you say then and there, as you 
gaze upon the pale countenance of the dead, " the 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed 
be the name of the Lord ?" When he takes away 
the health in which you had gloried, and lays you 
low on a sick-bed, do you feel it is his doing ? Can 
you lie passive in his hand ? can you " let patience 
have her perfect work," and, amid all the convul- 
sions of thQ earth, amid all the storms that shake 
the world, amid rolling thunders, and amid rock- 
ing thrones and heaving earthquakes, can you, as 
a child of God, resting on the Rock that never can 
be shaken, and cherishing bright hopes that shall 
never be disappointed, say to your own heart and 
to the hearts of others, "Be still, and know that 
the Lord is God: he w T ill be exalted among the 
heathen, and he will be exalted in the earth?" 
Thus then your light will so shine before men, in 
the world in which you are placed, amid the afflic- 
tions with which you may be tried, " that they may 
see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven." 

The state of the world as it now is, will bring 
out your light. We are very prone to speak of 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 175 

our country as a Christian land, and its population 
as a Christian people; without disregarding what 
is good, or trying to detract from what we must 
admit to be blessings, it is but too true that Christ's 
flock to-day, as it was eighteen hundred years ago, 
is still but a little flock. If the world around us 
be dark, and if we are conscious that we are light, 
then this will bring out what we are. If there be 
millions around us without religion — if there be 
ragged children running in our streets with no 
knowledge of God — if there be homes without 
Bibles, and therefore without happiness — if there 
be hearts without grace, and therefore without hope 
— and if these are not on the other side of the 
Atlantic or of the Pacific, but in our streets, our 
lanes, our crowded thoroughfares — then, if you 
have light within, depend upon it that light will 
exhibit itself, and they that are in darkness and 
the shadow of death will hail your approach as a 
light that brightens their path and leads them to 
the Lamb. It will show itself in your expression 
of sympathy with them that suffer — in your contri- 
butions to the cause of the institutions that would 
relieve them — in your patronising every movement 
that is fitted to do good — in your giving a respon- 
sive echo to every cry of the orphan — in your 
ministering to the wants of the widow, and making 
the w T orld recollect your existence in the midst of 
it, not as a blank or a bane, but a gigantic bless- 
ing, which they knew not till the gleam of the 



176 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

parting wing reminded them an angel of God was 
here. 

There is no reason in the world why you should 
not let your light so shine before men that they 
may see your good works and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven. It is one of the strange and 
almost unexpected facts in the conduct of men, 
that as long as they have any excellence that 
the world does or can admire, they will not be 
ashamed of it, but that things in which they should 
glory, which are their glory, which they should 
rejoice to have and to make known, are the very 
things that they seldom speak of without a blush, 
and scarcely allude to without some misgiving. 
This is one of those phenomena which our sinful- 
ness alone accounts for. Did you ever see beauty 
that was not proud of its charms ? or wealth that 
was not pleased with and proud of its riches ? or 
genius ashamed of its brilliancy ? or honour that 
undervalued its distinctions ? or a mother that felt 
not pleased with her healthy babe ? Shall the rebe 
on earth a child of God ashamed of his Father in 
heaven? a possessor of unsearchable riches anxious 
to conceal them ? a Christian ashamed of Christ ? 
a sinner saved that will not glory in the precious 
blood by which he was redeemed? a saint weary 
of proclaiming the excellence of that Gospel which 
has transformed him ? True it is, if you have 
genius, it will be felt ; if rank, it cannot be con- 
cealed; if wealth, others will know it; and if you 
have Christianity, it, too, will be seen and felt ; but 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 177 

in addition to this, you will feel it right to tell 
others what the Lord has done for your souls, and 
echo the words of the Psalmist, " Come, all ye 
that fear God, and I will show you what he has 
done for my soul. ,, There is nothing, then, in 
Christianity, or in our character as Christians, that 
we should be ashamed of. Let the soldier be 
ashamed of his standard, and the sailor of his 
Queen, if such a calamity should occur, but let not 
the Christian be ashamed of Him who is a light 
to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people 
Israel. Is there any part of the Bible of which 
you have reason to be ashamed, or which you have 
reason to conceal? I know of none. What 
truth is there in the Bible that you would not wish 
to be written as letters of light on the sky ? What 
influence is there of the Holy Spirit that you 
would not wish to burst into bloom in every life, 
and shine imperishable in every character? Does 
the Bible say "the wages of sin is death ?" Why 
should we hesitate to say so ? Does the Bible say, 
" Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God?" Is it not worth telling the 
world so ? Does it say, " God so loved the world 
that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life?" Should we be ashamed of such 
good news ? Does it say, " He that believeth hath 
everlasting life?" Is there any reason upon earth 
why we should shade such a light? Let the 
miser cleave to his gold, the infidel to his scepti- 
30* 



178 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

cism, the sensualist to his sins — and all court the 
night as their congenial season ; but we are the 
children of the day. Light is our element, and 
love is our atmosphere, and we are not ashamed 
of the Gospel of Christ ; we will " let our light so 
shine before men, that they may see our good 
works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven. ,, 

One of God's designs in making us Christians 
is to make it to be seen, and known, and felt, that 
we are so. God says of his people, "ye are my 
witnesses. ,, Christ is the great light of the world, 
believers are lights deriving their light from him, 
and reflecting that light upon the world ; and 
wherever God makes a Christian — and God alone 
can make one — there, he says, there is a specimen 
of what Christianity can do. Here is a model, 
flawed indeed it may be, but still so far a model 
of the power and influence of the Gospel of Jesus, 
a specimen of whatsoever things are pure and just, 
and lovely, and of good report, that judging by 
the specimen, as men in business do by the sample, 
you may also go to him who can make you the 
same. 

It is only by such practical illustrations of the 
power of religion that the world itself, or those 
that are in it, will be converted. The best creden- 
tials of Christianity are Christian men : and when 
all the arguments that have been employed to de- 
fend, and vindicate, and establish it have been ex- 
hausted, there is one within the reach of the 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 179 

humblest and most illiterate, that most impressive 
argument — a holy and consistent Christian life. 

The Church — meaning by that term the com- 
pany of believers — that sits in a nook and smiles 
complacently upon the world — that never tries to 
convince or to convert, but seeks only to enjoy the 
sunshine of God's countenance for itself, may have 
outward prosperity, but it has not the approval of 
God. Whereas that Church which is ready to 
concede the greatest prejudice, personal, historical, 
or national, but ready to go as a martyr to the 
flames rather than compromise the vital and essen- 
tial truths of living Christianity — the Church that 
has light in its head, and love in its heart, and 
holiness in its life, and outflowing influence, will 
so speak that the world in spite of itself must hear, 
and so shine that the blindness of the world must 
see, and the world, still at enmity to God, if it is 
not convinced and converted by the spectacle, shall 
raise again the olden cry, " Crucify him, crucify 
him ; away with him, away with him." 

Such a light shining before men will not only 
have the greatest effect upon the world, but it will 
make the greatest impression upon the sceptic. 
As long as the infidel sees that the only difference 
between him and the people called Christians is 
this, that they pronounce a certain Shibboleth, and 
go through certain formalities ; go to church on 
Sunday, and perhaps to the play-house on Mon- 
day ; and read their Bibles in the morning, and 
play cards at night : as long as he sees that the 



180 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

only difference between him and Christians is, that 
they have certain names, certain phrases, and cer- 
tain ordinances which he has not, so long he will 
say, Christianity is not worth having ; the change 
it makes is nothing; I am just as moral and up- 
right as those that make long prayers, and very 
loud professions. But let him see that lovely light 
descending into the cellar, and pouring its beams 
of truth and consolation there ; let the sceptic see 
that solitary beam issuing from that congregation, 
following that ragged child, and bringing him 
within the reach of the truth and joy of the 
Gospel ; let him see that light, as in the case of 
Mrs. Fry, visiting the cell of the prisoner, and dis- 
solving by its touch the chains that bind the soul ; 
let him see that light in all scenes where right is 
to be vindicated, and wrong-doing to be corrected, 
and good is to be done, and blessings to be diffused; 
then the sceptic, who was proof against your ex- 
ternal and your internal evidence, and against all 
the miracles you quoted, will be not only silenced, 
but satisfied by such evidence, and will say, as one 
said of old, "This is the finger of God." "Let 
your light, then, so shine before men, that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven/ ' 

It is mainly by such spectacles as these, that 
Eoman Catholics will be enlightened and converted. 
I believe that the very reason why the principles 
of Rome, like the person of its Pontiff, are not 
tumbling from their supremacy, is the defective 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 181 

tone and character of those that profess to be Pro- 
testants. If the poor Roman Catholic understands 
that it is merely a political quarrel, he will not 
listen to your arguments ; if he supposes that it 
is only an old family dispute between two sections 
of the Church, he will turn a deaf ear to your 
suggestions, and perhaps, if we could suspend all 
discussion for a while, and exhibit Protestantism 
in all its sublimity, its power, its transforming ex- 
cellence and beauty, I believe we should produce a 
mighty impression. If every Protestant could 
show himself a man of self-sacrifice, every one try- 
ing to spread the Gospel to the utmost, and every 
missionary labouring, in season and out of season, 
to bear the message of the Gospel to every man's 
gate, and the Bible to every man's home, seeking 
not theirs but them ; if we could show^ to Roman 
Catholics that the highest holiness can be attained 
without the aid of indulgences to stimulate, or the 
terrors of purgatory to frighten ; if we could show 
them that justification by faith is not a theological 
dogma about which men wrangle, but that it is 
embosomed in, and followed by, a retinue of the 
purest graces ; then I do believe we should make 
an impression upon them, such as should never be 
expunged from the hearts of one of the finest 
people, by nature, that w r e know — an impression 
that the Spirit of God itself would make perma- 
nent upon their souls. It is no use to try to expel 
Popery from the Roman Catholic heart, unless we 
show something better to supply its place. Never 

Q 



182 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

try to take from a man what he has, unless you 
can supply him with something better. Make the 
Roman Catholic cease to be a Roman Catholic, and 
there is a vacuum ; but the moral, like the physical 
world, abhors a vacuum ; hence there will rash in 
seven .demons sevenfold more wicked than the 
first. The? way to expel Popery is to press upon it 
Protestantism, and the way to drive out the evil 
affection is to introduce the good one. The way 
to make the deepest impression on the mind of 
superstition is to add to the eloquence of Paul his 
benevolent sympathies and Christian love ; and 
then all parties will see that in preaching from the 
pulpit our object is not merely to inculcate certain 
dogmas, but to produce a great moral and spiritual 
revolution. We have too much theology in our 
pulpits, we have too little religion in them. We 
must show that we have theology, not for its own 
sake, but for the sake of religion. We are espe- 
cially apt to fancy that an orthodox creed is salva- 
tion. It is not so : it may have all the clearness, 
but if it has also all the coldness of a moonbeam, 
it is of no use. There is no doubt Judas was 
orthodox in every article of his faith, knowing 
what was truth, and teaching and advocating it. 
But to have head without heart is not to have the 
salvation of the soul. Be not satisfied with your 
Christian convictions, till you have felt them in 
your hearts, seen them shining from your life, and 
heard the responsive recognition of them from 
those to whom they have been blessed. 



DUTIES OP COMMUNICANTS. 183 

"Let your light so shine before men, that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven." In adding a few more ex- 
planatory remarks to those I have already made, 
let me say, be sure first of all that you are lights, 
and then you ma}' be sure that you will be lumi- 
nous. I believe it is not so much our direct and 
aggressive efforts to do good, as the silent and un- 
conscious influence of Christian character, that 
produces the greatest effects. It is what a man is, 
not what he says, that tells the most. Better be a 
very poor preacher than a very poor liver. Better 
preach by the holiness of your life, than draw 
crowds by the most splendid and impressive elo- 
quence. Be, and not seem; be better than you 
seem, rather than seem better than you are. A 
holy life is a silent hymn ; a life of self-sacrifice is 
a continual sermon ; and he whose sermons have a 
commentary in his life is the man w T hom God has 
ordained and consecrated, and whom no Pope or 
prelate can excommunicate. To show the import- 
ance of this prescription, read again the biography 
of him of whom it was said, " Never man spake like 
this man," and of whom it might be added, as it is 
implied, "Never man lived like this man." What 
was it in the character and conduct of Jesus that 
made the greatest impression ? We read that, won- 
derful as were his words, untiring as was his benefi- 
cence, mighty as were his miracles, it was his con- 
sistent, beautiful and benevolent character that 
told upon the world, made his enemies fall to the 



184 THE COMMUNION TABLE. 

ground before him, and his own cluster around, 
and love and worship him. Jesus made so deep 
an impression on the age through which he passed, 
less by what he said, and more by what he was. 
He thus lived as the example, that we should follow 
in his footsteps. His speech, his miracles, his 
deeds, his travails were intended not to lead you 
to them, as if these were the ultimate thing, but to 
be pioneers to lead you to Jesus, and see in him. 
God manifest in the flesh. 

In the next place, it is not only important that 
the minister, like his Master, should he, and not 
seem, but it is also very important that the audience 
should be so too. When a minister preaches to an 
audience, three-fourths or nine- tenths of whom are 
worldly, thoughtless men, who are come merely to 
see if they can scent any prett}' flower in the ser- 
mon, or hear any well-turned sentence, not hunger- 
ing after living bread, or thirsting for living water, 
it is a discouragement to him ; but when he is 
convinced that half the congregation are living, 
Christian men, lights lighted from Christ, the 
fountain of light, then he preaches from the pulpit 
with more power, and tells upon the unconverted 
with greater effect. When sermons are cold, it is 
very often because the atmosphere in which they. 
are preached is cold. And when there is eloquence, 
or force, or power in a sermon, the reason lies often 
not in the genius of the preacher, but in the kind- 
ling and electric air in which he speaks. Were 
our soldiers and our sailors to 2*0 forth to distant 



DUTIES OF COMMUNICANTS. 185 

shores the lights of the world, letting their " light 
so shine before men, that they might see their 
good works, and glorify the Father which is in 
heaven," what blessed auxiliaries would they be to 
the missionaries of the Church of Christ ! Were 
those countless emigrants who are daily leaving 
our shores (and in some parts of the empire they 
are the best and the holiest who do leave) univer- 
sally the lights of the world, letting their " light so 
shine before men, that they might see their good 
works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven," 
it would be no more said that our emigrant popula- 
tion are like the locusts of Egypt, finding the 
world a garden before, and leaving a wilderness 
behind them ; but they would be lights of the 
world, spreading kindling rays wherever they go, 
the ambassadors of God, and the benefactors of 
mankind. It is thus that I am reminded how 
much good the poorest Christian can do. Do not 
let those who cannot give excuse themselves from 
duty, on the plea that they cannot be missionaries. 
I speak to those who cannot give, and say they' 
may exercise the office of missionaries in the 
chambers of the sick ; while you mingle the medi- 
cine that is prescribed, may you not whisper some 
short, simple, consolatory text i May not each 
man in his vocation and ministry, say or do some- 
thing that will let forth rays of light, which will 
reveal, in him and by him, the goodness, power 
and beauty of the everlasting Gospel ? 
31 q2 



APPENDIX 



A/WWWWWWWNA 



[The following extract is from a masterly work of Dr. M'Neile, 
" The Church and the Churches" a work that is worthy of 
universal study.] 

This will lead to a more direct consideration of the ordinance 
of the Lord's Supper. 

I. In its original institution. 
II. In its continuance in the Churches. 

III. In what is essential to its celebration. 

IV. In the true spiritual nature of it. 

I. The divine institution of the Lord's Supper is contained 
in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. As they were eating, 
" He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto 
them, saying, This is my body which is given for you : this do 
in remembrance of me. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, 
and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my 
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the 
remission of sins." (St. Luke xxii. 19 ; St. Matt. xxvi. 27, 28.) 

This is express and complete, so far as the disciples to whom 
Jesus addressed himself were concerned. It became obviously 
and undeniably their duty to observe this ordinance, as com- 
manded by their Lord and Master. But this, of itself, would 
not prove that the ordinance was to be continued in the Church 
after those first disciples had fallen asleep. Some of the things 
which the Lord commanded them were not to be continued. 

(186) 



APPENDIX. 187 

For example, when sending the twelve forth to preach, he com- 
manded them, saying, " Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor 
brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two 
coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves ; for the workman is worthy 
of his meat." (St. Matt. x. 9, 10.) From these words it 
became their plain duty to go forth without any of the ordinary 
means of support; but it does not follow that all who have 
succeeded them in the ministry of the Word shall go forth in 
like manner. And doubtless had the Scriptures contained 
nothing more upon the subject of the Lord's Supper than the 
commandment of Jesus to the twelve disciples, a similar line 
of argument might fairly be applied to invalidate the continu- 
ance of that ordinance in the churches. 

II. But it has pleased God to place this matter beyond the 
reach of reasonable doubt, and to give us as express an 
authority for the continuance, as for the original institution of 
the Lord's Supper. St. Paul was not one of the disciples to 
whom Jesus gave the commandment. At that time he was 
not a disciple at all, but an opposer and persecutor. After- 
wards, when he was called to be an Apostle, and sent forth to 
preach to the Gentiles ; to guard, it would seem, against any 
mistake upon this point, the Lord gave him special instructions 
similar to his original commandment addressed to the twelve. 
Of this he thus informs us : "I received of the Lord that 
which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same 
night in w T hich he was betrayed took bread : and when he had 
given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat : this is my body, 
which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me. After 
the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, 
saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood : this do 
ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." (1 Cor. xi. 
23 — 25.) And to prevent any subsequent mistake as to the 
continuance of the ordinance, the Apostle was instructed to 
declare that it was of uninterrupted divine obligation, until the 
second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. " For as often as ye 
eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's 
death till he come." (Verse 26.) The former part of this pas- 



188 APPENDIX. 

sage extends the institution to us Gentiles ; and the latter part 
binds it upon us and our children, till the Lord comes. 

III. The right celebration of the Lord's Supper includes an 
actual and literal use of bread and wine. This would seem to 
follow from the language of the institution itself, " eat," 
" drink." But this alone would not be conclusive ; because 
such language is, as we have seen, frequently used figuratively, 
to signify spiritual communion : but here again we are supplied, 
by the facts of the case, with most conclusive proof, that in the 
celebration of this ordinance, under apostolical authority, there 
was the actual use of bread and wine. The members of the 
primitive Corinthian church were guilty of a carnal abuse of 
this sacred ordinance. St. Paul reproves them for it, charging 
them with such reckless and selfish eating and drinking, that 
while some of the brethren were left without anything, others 
were surfeited even to drunkenness. His words are, " One i3 
hungry and another is drunken." It is obvious, therefore, that 
they had actual eating and drinking. (I may add, in passing, that 
it is equally obvious that what they drank was actually intoxi- 
cating wine.) And the Apostle, while directly correcting their 
abuse of the practice, indirectly stamps the practice itself with 
his inspired authority. Here was an opportunity afforded of 
putting a stop to the practice of using literal wine, had such 
practice been an error. But instead of putting a stop to it, 
the Apostle plainly sanctions it, provided it were done decently 
and in order. It follows from this, that whatever views of 
spiritual truth may be entertained, and whatever spiritual feel- 
ings may be experienced, no person, or society of persons, 
refusing to use, in this ordinance, literal bread and wine, can 
be living in obedience to our Lord's commandment. And it 
follows also that the lay members of the church partook of 
wine as well as bread ; otherwise no opportunity could have 
arisen for such an abuse, or the use of such language. 

Again ; the right celebration of this ordinance involves an 
acknowledgment of the doctrine of atonement, i. e. pardon of 
sin, through the meritorious substitution of an appointed sacri- 
fice. This was plainly declared by our Lord in the institution 
of it. "This is my blood which is shed for many for the 



APPENDIX. 189 

remission of sins." This direct connexion between the shed- 
ding of Christ's blood and the forgiveness of our sins, is the 
fundamental truth : without which it is worse than a perversion 
of language to admit that there is, or can be, any Christianity 
at all. None who reject this truth can be living in obedience 
to the Lord's commandment in this ordinance. 

But the right celebration of this ordinance does not include 
any specific and uniform mode of administration ; whether as 
to the words we use, or the postures we adopt, or the frequency 
of our observance, or the quantity we eat and drink. The 
words with which Christ himself blessed the bread, or gave 
thanks, are not recorded, neither are the words of the Apostles. 

All such details are left to the discretion of the members of 
the Church in different ages and countries ; and may be 
arranged and altered at discretion, provided always that 
nothing be enjoined contrary to God's word written, and 
nothing practised indecent or disorderly, frivolous or absurd. 

It is of much consequence thus to distinguish between what 
is essential to the ordinance as of divine institution, and what 
is adventitious as of human arrangement. If there be no 
bread used, or no wine, or if there be no confession of the 
great doctrine of atonement, the ordinance is vitiated. The 
Lord's Supper, as the Lord appointed it, is not observed. But 
it may be observed where there is no Liturgy, no prescribed 
form of consecration, no rubrical directions concerning the 
postures of the minister, the position or description of the 
table, or the time and manner of placing the bread and wine 
upon it. 

On all such matters it is lawful for any national or particular 
Church to adopt any such arrangements as shall be deemed 
expedient for decency and order ; and when they are adopted, 
it is not lawful for any private member of such Church to vio- 
late them. But it is lawful for any other national or particular 
church to adopt other different arrangements, (provided always 
that nothing be enjoined contrary to God's word written,) and 
it is schismatical tyranny in any one Church to impose her 
own arrangements (as necessary to salvation) upon another ; 
or to deny the true and saving Christianity of other Churches, 

31* 



190 APPENDIX. 

because they prefer their own arrangements, and refuse to 
adopt hers. 

We are confirmed in this judgment by the difference between 
the instructions given by inspiration of God in the Jewish 
ordinances and in the Christian. 

In Judaeism, uniformity in detail was necessary for the com- 
pleteness and integrity of the type, therefore every garment 
and every movement of the sacrificing priest was specified in 
the divine institution : but now the great Anti-type is come, 
the one sacrifice once, and once for all, offered, and the true 
ever-living Priest entered into heaven itself; now, the con- 
formity required is reduced to the simplest elements, and no 
details of administration, whether of dress or posture, whether 
of minister or people, are specified. We now consider 

IV. The true spiritual nature of the Lord's Supper. 

This may, I think, be perfectly and clearly considered under 
five heads. 

(1.) It is a commemoration of an absent friend. The friend 
is Jesus Christ. Where is he now ? I do not ask this with 
reference to his Godhead ; in this respect he is everywhere 
essentially omnipresent, " equal to the Father as touching 
his Godhead/' But his manhood, and especially the visible 
part of it, his body, which was born of the Virgin Mary, which 
hungered, thirsted, suffered, died, was buried, and rose again 
the third day ; his body concerning which, after it was risen, 
he said, " Handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see me have." (St. Luke xxiv. 39.) So considered, 
where is he ? The answer is, " In heaven." He went away into 
heaven, and will come again in like manner as he went. (Acts 
i. 11.) Before he departed he appointed this memorial of him- 
self to be observed by his friends during his absence. " He 
took bread and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave to them, 
saying, This is my body which is given for you ; this do in 
remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper," &c. 
Thus, this was to be done in remembrance of him, until he 
should return again, when of course this memorial, intended 
for his absence, would cease. 

This seems fairly to conclude against his bodily presence in 



APPENDIX. 191 

the ordinance. Remembrance refers to a transaction past, or 
an individual absent, and not to anything present. Of course 
he was present when he first desired them to do it, and showed 
them what to do ; but he did not so desire them, till he was on 
the point of leaving them ; and his commandment to continue 
the practice had obvious and natural reference to his approach- 
ing absence. If he intended this eating and drinking to be 
done by his Church in his presence, he used a word calculated 
to mislead when he said, do this in remembrance of me. If at 
the words of consecration he comes, then the time is arrived 
for discontinuing this ordinance, for it is instituted only till he 
comes. 

(2.) It is a confession of faith. 

As often, however frequently or rarely it may be, as we obey 
this commandment of the Lord, eating this bread and drinking 
this cup, we do " snetv the Lord's death till he comes." By an 
outward and visible action, which may be seen and known of 
all around us, we point to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ 
as the foundation of our hope in the day of Judgment, when 
he shall come in his glory. We confess him, not only in our 
own hearts in secret before his all-searching eye, but openly 
also " before men." Such an open acknowledgment of him 
now during his absence, and while the world is rejecting him, 
he expressly requires from his Church, and connects it with a 
corresponding acknowledgment of her upon his return. " Who- 
soever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man 
also confess before the angels of God." (St. Luke xii. 8.) To 
receive the Lord's Supper is to shew our faith in the Lord's 
death ; it is a public declaration that we renounce every other 
way, or supposed way, of salvation, and cleave only unto Him. 

(3.) It is a vow of devoted service. 

It is from this that it derived the name of sacrament. Sacra- 
mentum signifies an oath. It was commonly used to express 
the obligation under which Roman soldiers bound themselves 
unto death, when they entered the army. And because the 
members of Christ's Church did in baptism make, and at the 
Lord's Supper repeat, a solemn oath or vow to be Christ's 
faithful soldiers and servants until their lives' end ; those ordi- 



192 APPENDIX, 

nances came to be called, in the Latin churches, sacramenta, 
or sacraments. This is the simple and intelligible origin of this 
much-abused word, which has been made, in the imagination 
of theologians, to signify what it never signified in any 
language. The meanings ascribed to it are so entirely arbi- 
trary, and so utterly wide of the literal signification of the 
word itself, that in the disputations which have arisen about 
them, there is no common standard to refer to, and of course 
controversy is interminable. 

If the word occurred in the Scriptures, the case would be 
wholly different; for then, every Christian, society would be 
equally bound to investigate, and if possible to ascertain, the 
sense in which the sacred writer used it, and to receive that 
sense as a common standard : but the word now under consider- 
ation, though in such incessant use among ecclesiastical contro- 
versialists, never once occurs in the inspired volume. It is for 
this reason, that in my endeavours to avoid ambiguity, I have 
refrained as far as possible from the use of this shibboleth, 
and adopted the expression which is sanctioned by apostolic 
usage, the Lord's Supper. (1 Cor. xi. 20.) 

The open celebration of this ordinance might well be con- 
sidered a solemn vow, pledge, or oath of allegiance to the Lord 
Jesus Christ, accompanied as it was by exposure to imminent 
danger. The stream of authority ran against the infant Church, 
even to violent persecution. Great was the temptation, there- 
fore, by which converts were exercised, to conceal their con- 
victions within their own bosoms, or at farthest within the 
circle of their faithful and already converted friends ; if by so 
doing they might have the saving benefits of the Christian re- 
ligion, without incurring the present perils of the Christian 
Church. Participation in the Lord's Supper was incompatible 
with such concealment ; because it was an overt act, open to 
the inspection of any spy, and easy of proof before the 
magistrates. 

It was, therefore, not only a profession of faith, but a pro- 
fession under such circumstances as invested it with the 
character of a solemn enlistment by men who had counted the 



APPENDIX. 193 

cost, and come to the determination not to esteem their lives 
dear to themselves in comparison with the high duty and ever- 
lasting blessedness of serving the Lord Christ. 

(4.) It is a spiritual feeding upon the truth. 

Truth is to a man's soul what food is to his body. If the 
body be healthful, food is enjoyed, and ministers growth : it 
gives great pleasure in the taking, and strength when taken. 
If the soul be healthful, truth is in like manner attended with 
gratification and production of strength and growth. Jesus 
Christ is "the truth." Jesus Christ is " God manifest in the 
flesh." The flesh of Christ, i. e. his body and blood, express 
comprehensively all revealed truth. To feed on truth, is to eat 
and drink Christ : to eat his body, and drink his blood. If any 
man feed not on the truth, if he enjoy it not, tasting that the 
Lord is good ; (Ps. xxxiv. 8 ;) if he eat not the body of Christ, 
and drink not his blood, he has no true spiritual life in him. 
(St. John vi. 53.) 

The Lord's Supper expresses this, not by words only, but 
also by material things. Our sense of taste is appealed to, as 
well as our mental or spiritual perceptions. Religion is not a 
science, but a life. Truth is not a lesson to be learned in the 
intellect, but an incorporation including the whole man, the 
sentient, the animal parts, as well as the intellectual. It is 
union with Christ. He dwells in our hearts by faith, (Ephes. 
iii. 17,) and we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of 
his bones. (lb. v. 30.) 

Of this the Lord's Supper is the outward and visible expres- 
sion : valuable, highly so, as all means are which the Lord has 
appointed, but valuable only as means for the attainment of 
the higher end in view. This accounts, and I think very 
satisfactorily, for the fact, that the Lord's Supper is so rarely 
mentioned in the history or writings of the Apostles. They 
were so engrossed in thinking and feeling, and speaking, and 
writing about the great end, that they seldom dwell upon the 
details of the means. If we except the passing mention made 
of "breaking of bread," in the second chapter of the Acts of 
the Apostles, (and the application of that to the Lord's Supper 
is doubtful,) tht subject of the Lord's Supper is not so much 

E 



194 APPENDIX. 

as alluded to in the entire narrative. In St. Paul's Epistle to the 
Romans, there is no mention of or allusion to it. In his second 
Epistle to the Corinthians, there is no allusion to it. In his 
Epistles to the Churches of Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, 
and Thessalonica, we do not meet with the slightest allusion 
to it. In his Epistles to Timothy and Titus, where some 
instruction upon the subject might have been expected, there is 
no allusion to it. The same is true of his Epistle to Philemon, 
and I think also of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The only 
clause in this Epistle that can be mistaken for an allusion (and 
that a remote and obscure one,) to the Lord's Supper, is chap, 
xiii. 10, " We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat 
which serve the tabernacle." This appears to me to be a 
general contrast between Christianity and Judseism, expressing 
the impossibility of practically combining them, but without 
any special reference to the Lord's Supper. In this opinion I 
am not singular. 

In the Epistle general of St. James, there is no allusion to 
it. In the two Epistles of St. Peter, no allusion to it. In the 
three Epistles of St. John, no allusion to it. In the Epistle of 
St. Jude, no allusion to it ! 

The reader will notice that this is not a matter of opinion, 
liable to error and open to correction, but a plain matter of 
fact ; and certainly, if it be a primary duty (as without doubt 
it is) to give diligent heed to the truth as it is revealed in the 
Scriptures, and not only so, but also to the scriptural propor- 
tions in which it is pressed upon the Church ; there is much 
and important instruction in the facts here stated. In all the 
apostolical writings subsequent to the institution of the Lord's 
Supper, that ordinance is plainly mentioned only in one 
Epistle ; and in that Epistle, only twice : once as a passing 
illustration of another subjeet, and once for the correction of 
certain practical abuses which had crept into the mode of its 
observance. 

This fact does not in any way disparage the ordinance itself. 
The Apostles would not of course have adopted any line of 
procedure justly liable to such a reproach. One plain com- 
mandment from their Lord was abundantly sufficient to 



APPENDIX. 19-5 

ensure their dutiful obedience. I speak here of proportions in 
the teaching of the Apostles, whether they were preaching to 
the heathen, or writing to the saints. They used all appointed 
means, but they did not treat means as if they were ends ; or 
as if they could of themselves, or by any inherent virtue lodged 
in them and inseparable from them, secure the ends desired. 
If the Apostles believed, as the truth of God, what many claim- 
ing to be their successors have advanced upon the subject; they 
have certainly manifested a remarkable unanimity in conceal- 
ing their real sentiments, Supposing Peter and John to have 
held the Roman — or Tractarian — view of "the Holy Eucha- 
rist :" their catholic epistles may be cited as the most complete 
specimens of reserve which have ever been published. In 
those epistles, the sacred writers enlarge, with eager anima- 
tion, on evangelical doctrine, but make no mention whatever, 
directly or indirectly, of the Lord's Supper considered as an 
outward ordinance. 



II. 

FROM THE LARGER CATECHISM OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 

Q. 1C8. What is the Lord's Supper? 

A. The Lord's Supper is a sacrament of the New Testament, 
wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to 
the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed forth ; 
and they that worthily communicate feed upon his body and 
blood, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace ; have 
their union and communion with him confirmed ; testify and 
renew their thankfulness, and engagement to God, and their 
mutual love and fellowship each with other, as members of the 
same mystical body. 

Q. 1G9. How hath Christ appointed bread and wine to be given 
and received in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ? 



196 APPENDIX. 

A. Christ hath appointed the ministers of his word, in the 
administration of this sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to set 
apart the bread and wine from common use, by the word of 
institution, thanksgiving, and prayer ; to take and break the 
bread, and to give both the bread and the wine to the commu- 
nicants, who are, by the same appointment, to take and eat the 
bread, and to drink the wine, in thankful remembrance that 
the body of Christ was broken and given, and his blood shed, 
for them. 

Q. 170. How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord's 
Supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein? 

A. As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or 
carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the 
Lord's Supper, and yet are spiritually present to the faith of 
the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements them- 
selves are to their outward senses; so they that worthily com- 
municate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, do therein 
feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a carnal, but 
in a spiritual manner ; yet truly and really, while by faith they 
receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the 
benefits of his death. 

Q. 171. How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper to prepare themselves before coming unto it t 

A. They that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper are, 
before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examin- 
ing themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants ; 
of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance ; 
love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those 
that have done them wrong ; of their desires after Christ, and 
of their new obedience ; and by renewing the exercise of these 
graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer. 

Q. 172. May one who doubteth of his being in Christ or of his 
due preparation, come to the Lord's Supper ? 

A. One who doubteth of his being in Christ, or of his due 
preparation to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, may have 
true interest in Christ, though he be not yet assured thereof; 
and in God's account hath it, if he be duly affected with the 
apprehension of the want of it, and unfeignedly desires to be 



APPENDIX. 197 

found in Christ, and to depart from iniquity : in which case 
(because promises are made, and this sacrament is appointed, 
for the relief even of weak and doubting Christians) he is to 
bewail his unbelief, and labour to have his doubts resolved: 
and, so doing, he may and ought to come to the Lord's Supper, 
that he may be further strengthened. 

Q. 173. May any who profess the faith, and desire to come to 
the Lord's Supper, be kept from it? 

A. Such as are found to be ignorant or scandalous, notwith- 
standing their profession of the faith, and desire to come to the 
Lord's Supper, may and ought to be kept from the sacrament, 
by the power which Christ hath left in the Church, until they 
receive instruction, and manifest their reformation. 

Q. 174. What is required of them that receive the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper in the time of the administration of it ? 

A. It is required of them that receive the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, that, during the time of the administration of 
it, with all holy reverence and attention they wait upon God in 
that ordinance, diligently observe the sacramental elements and 
actions, needfully discern the Lord's body, and affectionately 
meditate on his death and sufferings, and thereby stir up them- 
selves to a vigorous exercise of their graces ; in judging them- 
selves, and sorrowing for sin ; in earnest hungering and thirst- 
ing after Christ, feeding on him by faith, receiving of his 
fulness, trusting in his merits, rejoicing in his love, giving 
thanks for his grace ; in renewing of their covenant with God, 
and love to all the saints. 

Q. 175. What is the duty of Christians, after they have received 
the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper? 

A. The duty of Christians, after they have received the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper, is seriously to consider how they 
have behaved themselves therein, and with what success ; if 
they find quickening and comfort, to bless God for it, beg the 
continuance of it, watch against relapses, fulfil their vows, and 
encourage themselves to a frequent attendance on that ordi- 
nance : but if they find no present benefit, more exactly to 
review their preparation to, and carriage at, the sacrament ; in 
both which, if they can approve themselves to God and their 

32 r 2 



198 APPENDIX. 

own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it in due 
time : but, if they see they have failed in either, they are to be 
humbled, and to attend upon it afterward w r ith more care and 
diligence. 

Q. 176. Wherein do the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper agree f 

A, The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper agree, 
in that the author of both is God ; the spiritual part of both is 
Christ and his benefits ; both are seals of the same covenant, 
are to be dispensed by ministers of the Gospel, and by none 
other, and to be continued in the Church of Christ until his 
second coming. 

Q. 177. Wherein do the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper differ ? 

A. The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper differ, 
in that Baptism is to be administered but once, with water, to 
be a sign and seal of our regeneration and ingrafting into 
Christ, and that even to infants ; whereas the Lord's Supper is 
to be administered often, in the elements of bread and wine, 
to represent and exhibit Christ as spiritual nourishment to the 
soul, and to confirm our continuance and growth in him, and 
that only to such as are of years and ability to examine them- 
selves. 



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THE LIFE OF PHILIP MELANCHTHON, 

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THE CHRISTIAN'S DAILY DELIGHT. \ 

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HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES, 

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CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER I. The First Crusade. — Causes of the Crusades — Preaching 01 tht 
First Crusade — Peter the Hermit — The Crusade undertaken by the People — 
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Constantinople — The Siege of Nice — Defeat of the Turks — Seizure of Edessa — 
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CHAPTER III. The Third Crusade.— The Rise of Saladin— Battle of Tibe- 
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CHAPTER IV. The Fourth Crusade. — The French, Germans, and Italians 
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CHAPTER V. The Last Four Crusades.— History of the Latin Empi/e of 
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Eighth Crusade. 

CHAPTER VI. — Consequences op the Crusades. 



At the present time, when a misunderstanding concerning the Holy Places at 
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the history of the Holy Wars in Palestine during a considerable portion of the 
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The editor, in the performance of his duty, has been struck with the masterly, 
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with the vigorous style, and the happy power of giving vividness, colour, and 
thrilling interest to the events which he narrates, so conspicuous in Major Proc- 
tor's history. No other historian of the Crusades has succeeded in comprising so 
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Sir E. L. Bulwer. 

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STRUGGLES FOR LIFE, An Autobiography. \ 

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and beautiful lines. We are glad to see such a favourite poet in such gi-aceful attire. The type v 

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its publication. Our readers are not to expect in it a scientific treatise on Bible ornithology, with the 
usual technical descriptions, but a series of beautifully-written sketches suggested by the mention of 
various birds, incidentally referred to in the sacred Scriptures. Mr. Harbaugh's talents as an agree- 
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publishers have most liberally aided him in making this work acceptable, by the accompaniments of a 
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This volume will rank among the most perfect specimens of illustrated typography and of binding 
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■ 



The conception of this book is, we believe, as original as it is beautiful. The various birds men- 
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divine v/.'sdom and goodness, but as a preacher of the most important truths. The work is suited, 
not less to enlarge on^'s knowledge of the kingdom of nature, than to increase one's admiration and 
reverence for the Lord of the creation. The spirit is eminently devot ional. ; nd the religious teachings 
not only in harmony with the sacred record, but most happily illustrative of it. — Puritan Recorder. 

There seems to have been a successful effort on the part of the author, artist, and publishers, to 
produce a book at once beautiful in its subjects and in its language ; artistic in its r^merous iL-.at.ra- 
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PASTOR OF THE FIRST GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH, LANCASTER, PA. 

In One Volume, 12mo. Price 75 Cents. 

THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION, 

OR AN EARNEST AND SCRIPTURAL DISCUSSION OF THE QUESTION, 

Will m litora nt fnmh in jBmibd? 

BY REV. H. HARBAUGH. 

In One Volume, 12mo. Price 75 Cente. 



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THE HEAVENLY HOME; 

OR, 
THE EMPLOYMENT AND ENJOYMENTS OF THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 

BY THE REV. H. HARBAUGH, 

AUTHOR OF "THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION OF FRIENDS," AND ''flEAVENJ 
OR, THE SAINTED DEAD." 

In One Volume, 12mo. Price $1 00. \ 

HARBAUGH'S FUTURE LIFE; j 

CONTAINING * 

HEAVEN, OR, THE SAINTED DEAD, \ 

THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION, | 

THE HEAVENLY HOME. j 

TBREE VOLUMES, NEATLY BOUND IN CLOTH WITH GILT BACKS, AND A PORTRAIT * 
OF THE AUTHOR. PRICE $2 50. { 

£&* Copies of the above Books, har dsomely bound for presentation, in cloth, '* 
full gilt. Price of the first and second volumes, $1 25 each ; of the third $1 50. < 



LINDSAY & BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS, 
AS ILLTJSTEATED LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER, 

THE GREAT GERMAN REFORMER. With a Sketch of the Reformation in Germany. I 

Edited, with an Introduction, hy the Rev. Theophilus Stork, D.D., late Pastor of St. J 

Mark's Luthern Church, Philadelphia. Beautifully Illustrated by sixteen designs, printed € 

on fine paper. A handsome octavo volume. J 

Price, in cloth, gilt backs, - - «..■'■ $3 00 { 

full gilt, - - - - - - 2 50 | 

. In embossed leather, marble edges, gilt backs, &c«, 2 25 | 

The world owes much to Luther, and the Reformation of which he was the prominent leader, and J 

nothing, save the pure, simple word of God, will do more towards securing the prevalence and per- J 

petuating the influence of the principles of religious liberty for which he and the other Reformers i 

contended, than the circulation of a book in which the mental processes by which he arrived at his J 

conclusions, are set forth. We can safely recommend this book as one that is worthy of a place in £ 

every dwelling, and we hope its circulation may be as wide as its merits are deserving.— Evangelical | 
Magazine. 

THE LIFE OF PHILIP MELAWCHTH01T, 

THE FRIEND AND COMPANION OF LUTHER, According to his Inner and Outer Life. 
Translated from the German of Charles Frederick Ledderhose, by the Rev. G. F. Krotel, 
Pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa. With a Portrait of Melanchthon. 
In one Volume, 12mo. Price $1 00. 



THE PARABLES OF FRED'K ADOLPHUS KRUMMACHER. 

From the seventh German edition. Elegantly Illustrated hy Twenty-six Original Designs, 
beautifully printed on fine paper. A handsome demy octavo volume. 

Elegantly bound in cloth) gilt backs? - - - Price $1 75 
full gilt sides, backs and edges, 2 50 

Turkey morocco, antique* ■ 4 00 

The simple and Christian parables of Krummacher, chiefly the productions of his younger years, 
have acquired a wide popularity, and have long afforded a fund on which our periodicals have freely 
drawn. In their collected form they have passed through various editions in Germany, but we doubt 
whether any of them have been so tasteful and beautiful in all their appliances as the one before us. 
The typography is very chaste, and the illustrations neat and appropriate.— Presbyterian. 



THE CHRISTIAN'S DAILY DELIGHT. 

A SACRED GARLAND, CULLED FROM ENGLISH AND 'AMERICAN POETS. Beauti- 
fully Illustrated by Eight Engravings on Steel. 

In one volume, demy, octavo, cloth, gill backs* ■ Price $1 50 

full gilt sides* Backs and edges* 3 25 

In this attractive volume we find much to please the eye ; but the most valuable recommendation € 
of the work is found in the lessons of piety, virtue, morality, and mercy, which are thrown together £ 
in this many-colo'ired garland of poetic flowers.— Episcopal Recorder. i 

^6 WW\*V^\ %%VtV V»V%* %%*%W*%%* N«*Vt ********** %%V******* *%******************.& 



LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON 

PUBLISH 

A MANUAL OF SACRED HISTOEY; 

OR, 
A GUIDE TO THE UNDERSTANDING 

@f t\t giiihu $Isn of SaliiatiM 

ACCORDING TO ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
BY 

JOHN HENRY KURTZ, D.D., 

TROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DORPAT, ETC. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE SIXTH GERMAN EDITION, 

BY 

CHARLES F. SCHAEFFER, D.D., 

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

" A very comprehensive, accurate, and methodical digest of the Sacred His- 
tory — done with genuine thoroughness and scholarship. There is nothing 
among our manuals of Biblical History that corresponds with this. It is sim- 
ple in style, and orthodox in sentiment." — AT. Y. Evangelist. 



"The Observations (introduced by the author) are replete with the results 
of extensive research — meeting objections and cavils, solving difficulties, ex- 
plaining obscure passages, reconciling apparent discrepancies, pointing out 
connectious, exposing and rectifying errors, unfolding the nature and design 
of sacred institutions and ordinances, and showing the relation of events, per- 
sons, institutions and prophecies, to the great central fact and theme of Scrip- 
ture, man's redemption through the incarnate Son." — Evangelical Review, 
April, 1855. 

"This is the best book of the kind we have ever examined, and one of the 
best translations from German into English we have ever seen. The author 
makes no parade of learning in his book, but his exegetical statements are 
evidently founded on the most careful, thorough, and extensive study, and can 
generally be relied upon as among the best results, the most surely ascertained 
conclusions of modern philological investigation. We by no means hold our- 
selves responsible for every sentiment in the book, but we cordially recommend 
*it to every minister, to every Sunday school teacher, to every parent, and to 
every intelligent layman, as a safe and exceedingly instructive guide, through 
the entire Bible history, the Old Testament and the New. It is a book which 
actually accomplishes more than its title promises," &c. &q. — (Andover) Bibli- 
otheea Sacra, April, 1S05. 



Jgntirra hi] t!jf ^nm nf Itirif s mnl listnrtj, 

PUBLISHED BY LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON, PHILADELPHIA. 



Dr. J. H. Kurtz's Manual of Sacred History is the production of a very 
able and pious divine of our church in Europe. The author is particularly 
distinguished for his learning, his orthodoxy, his liberality, his piety, and his 
originality. He writes with great clearness and condensation, and presents in 
a brief compass a large amount of matter. His various works, and particularly 
his Histories, have received the highest endorsement abroad in their popularity 
and multiplied editions, and are commended in the strongest terms by the most 
eminent divines. Guericke, Bruno Lindner, and Rudelbach, laud his Histo- 
ries in the strongest terms, and the Evangelical Review,* in the United States, 
has furnished evidence of his great merits from authentic sources. The admi- 
rable Manual of Sacred History, translated by Dr. Schaeffer, (and, having ex- 
amined some parts of the translation, we may say well translated,) will consti- 
tute a rich contribution to our theological literature. Having encouraged the 
translator to undertake the work, we are the more free to express our high 
opinion of it, and the fidelity with which it has been executed. We hope this 
will be the forerunner of other translations of works of the author. 

C. P. KRAUTH, 
Professor of Sac. Phil. Church Hist, and Past. Theol.. Gettysburg, Pa. 

Sept. 16„ 1854. 

The Sacred History of Dr. J. H. Kurtz, does not belong to the ordinary class 
of historic Manuals, with which the literature of Germany abounds. On the 
contrary, after considerable acquaintance with it, we hesitate not to pronounce 
it a production of very superior merit in its department, possessed of high lite- 
rary and theological excellence. Its style is pure and perspicuous, its divisions 
are natural and appropriate, and the grouping of events felicitous and impres- 
sive. Without assenting to every sentiment of the author, we cordially recom- 
mend his work to the patronage of the Christian public, and consider Dr. 
Schaeffer as entitled to the gratitude of the church, for presenting this Manual 
to the English public in so accurate aud excellent a translation. 

S. S. SCHMUCKER, 

Professor of Didactic, Polemic and Homiletic Theology, in Theol. Sem. of Gettysburg. 

Sept. 17, 1854. 

I know of no work in the English or German language which gives, in so 
short a compass, so full and clear an account of the gradual development of 
the divine plan of salvation, from the fall of man to the resurrection of Christ 
and the founding of the apostolic church, and which is, at the same time, so 
sound in sentiment, so evangelical in tone, and, without being superficial, so 
well adapted for popular use, as the " Manual of Sacred History/' by Dr. J. 
H. Kurtz. The translation of the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Schaeffer seems to me, 
as far as I have examined it, to do full justice to the German original, as well 
as to the English idiom. PHILIP SCHAFF, 

Prof, of Ch. Hist., &c. 
Mercersburg, Pa., Jan. 31, 1855. 

* July. 1853, p. 108. 

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